The Higher Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) of Ukraine cut the sum of bail for former Deputy Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine Yuriy Hrymchak by 67 percent, leaving detention measure effective.
According to a posting on the court.gov.ua website, the judge partially granted the petition of the defense, cutting the sum of the bail from 3,123 minimum subsistence wages for able-bodied persons to 1,041, or from Hr 5.999 million to Hr 2 million.
The hearing was held as video conference as the suspect stays in the Chernihiv detention facility.
In addition, on Dec. 11, a HACC investigating judge changed the detention measure to 24-hour house arrest for the “assistant” to the former deputy minister, who is considered being implicated in the crime by investigators.
As reported, on the evening of August 14, the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the SBU State Security Service, under the procedural leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO), detained Hrymchak and his accomplice for extorting bribes in the amount of $1.1 million. They were caught red-handed while getting $480,000 of the total amount.
According to the SBU and NABU, Hrymchak is suspected of committing a crime under Part 4 of Article 190 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code (fraud committed on an especially large scale or by an organized group).
On Aug. 16, Chernihiv’s Desniansky district court chose a preventive measure for Hrymchak in the form of detention with Hr 6 million bail as an option.
