Case description
On July 26, 2022, the HACC found Dmytro Loban, a judge of the Chernihiv District Administrative Court, guilty of taking a bribe for a positive decision in the case in favor of the plaintiff. The judges imposed a suspended sentence on him.
In June 2007, the Lutava production cooperative received a 49-year lease on 167 hectares of state land. In 2018, the Main Department of the State Geocadastre in the Chernihiv region terminated the contract without notifying the cooperative.
In August 2021, Tetiana Bakhmat, a representative of the cooperative, turned to Judge Loban for a consultation in a case involving the unlawful termination of a contract.
Loban offered to rule in favor of the company for USD 20,000. The judge received the money in two tranches—USD 7,000 in October and USD 13,000 in November. The NABU and SAPO detained Loban while he was receiving the second tranche of the bribe.
Loban's actions were classified under Article 368, part 3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The defense asked to approve Loban's plea agreement because he got mobilized on the first day of the full-scale invasion and was positively characterized by his fellows and volunteers.
The court approved the agreement and imposed a suspended sentence on Loban with a probationary period of 3 years, confiscated the first part of the bribe, and banned him from holding certain positions for 3 years. In addition, the HACC reduced Loban's bail from UAH 1 mln to UAH 278,000, and channeled the rest to the needs of the Armed Forces.
