Suspected bribe taker Petro Melnyk was arrested on July 27 for allegedly accepting $15,000 to let two applicants enroll in the nation’s tax university where he was the rector since 1991.
He was hospitalized on the same day, complaining about heart problems. After he refused to attend Pechersk Kyiv District Court proceedings citing his apparent medical condition, he was forcibly transported to the Pechersk court on Aug. 1 in an ambulance bed. During a court recess, when journalists asked him to show scars from the surgery, Melnyk revealed his right thigh, which was bandaged with gauze. Kyiv’s chief cardiologist Leonid Kushnir told courtroom reporters he found no evidence that Melnyk had “cardiac-related intervention surgery.”
