Case description
On January 14, 2022, the HACC found Volodymyr Chebotarov, former prosecutor of the Kyiv Prosecutor's Office, guilty of demanding a bribe to close a criminal proceeding and fraudulently obtaining the funds. Therefore, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but later he was exempted from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Volodymyr Chebotarov is the former head of the department for supervision over the observance of laws by territorial police bodies in the Kyiv Region Prosecutor's Office.
In the spring of 2016, he incited Oleksandr Kucherenko, the director of a private firm, to pass a bribe to Rivne prosecutors for closing the case. The case concerned the company's overstatement of the volume of food supplies to Rivne educational institutions, which caused losses to the local budget. The prosecutor tried to convince the director that a bribe was the only way out of the situation.
However, soon the director of the company filed a statement with the SSU in the Rivne region. Later, Chebotarov got UAH 50,000 in two tranches, keeping part of the money for himself.
The court classified Chebotarov's actions under Article 27, part 4; Article 15, part 2; Article 369, part 3; and Article 190, part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. He was imprisoned for 5 years with confiscation of all his property and deprivation of the 1st rank of a lawyer. However, the ex-prosecutor was not punished for the fraud due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Subsequently, the defense filed an appeal, but the HACC Appeals Chamber did not grant it.
In the summer of 2023, the appellate instance changed the classification of Chebotarov's actions to Article 369-2, part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and mitigated his sentence to 4 years in prison. Since the statute of limitations had expired, the former prosecutor was exempted from punishment.
