Case description
On November 11, 2020, the HACC found Valerii Priadko, former Director of Poltavafarm and former MP of the Poltava Regional Council, and his former Deputy Ruslan Hniezdov guilty of attempting to bribe a police officer. Both were sentenced to 4.5 years.
In 2017, when the events occurred, Valerii Priadko was a member of the Poltava Regional Council and headed ME Poltavafarm, which sold medicines (including psychotropic drugs) through a network of its own pharmacies. Ruslan Hniezdov was his deputy.
The municipal company had to renew its permit from the Ministry of Health to sell psychotropic and narcotic substances, and pharmacists also needed a new permit from the police to use the premises for sales. In May 2017, Hniezdov went to the police to resolve this situation with the delay in issuing the permits. Hniezdov offered the police officer a "reward" that would speed up the bureaucratic process. He agreed upon this proposal with his boss, Priadko, and took UAH 35,000 to the police, where he was detained.
Priadko later claimed that the bribe was the result of a provocation, as the police allegedly delayed the consideration of the request.
The court classified the actions of Priadko and Hniezdov under Article 369(3) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Both Hniezdov and Priadko were sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. The defense counsel filed an appeal and a cassation appeal, but the verdict remained unchanged.
