Today the HACC found MP Oleksandr Yurchenko guilty of extorting and accepting a bribe in exchange for lobbying legislative changes, under Article 368(4), Article 27(4), and Article 369(2) of the Criminal Code.

The court sentenced Yurchenko to nine years in prison, along with a three-year ban on holding state or local-government office and the confiscation of his property.

For part of the charges, the court reclassified the MP’s actions from incitement to offering an undue advantage (Part 4 of Article 27 and Part 4 of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) as abuse of influence and released him from punishment under this article due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

The court left his UAH 3 million bail in place until the verdict takes legal effect.