On December 13, the HACC delivered a verdict in the case of the seizure of more than 15 hectares of land belonging to the National Agrarian Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NAAS). All the accused were found guilty as officials that had seized property by abuse office by prior conspiracy of a group of persons on an especially large scale and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 7 to 8 years, as well as deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a period of up to 2 years.
In addition, the court applied confiscation of property, varying from 50% to ⅔ of the convicted persons' property. Moreover, in some cases, all property was confiscated, and one of the accused was deprived of the rank of colonel.
- Roman Kucher, former head of the Department of the State Land Agency of the Kyiv region: 8 years of imprisonment, 2 years of deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities with confiscation of 2/3 of property.
- Stanislav Hubin, former deputy head of the Main Directorate of the State Land Agency of the Kyiv region: 8 years of imprisonment, 2 years of deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, with confiscation of 2/3 of the property.
- Ivan Shevchenko, ex-head of an NSC Institute of Agriculture department of the NAAS: 7 years of imprisonment, 2 years of deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, with confiscation of half of the property.
- Oleksandr Ishchuk, former director of SE Chabany Research Farm: 7 years of imprisonment, 2 years of deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, with confiscation of half of the property.
- Viktor Kaminskyi, Director of the NSC Institute of Agriculture of the NAAS: 7 years of imprisonment, 2 years of deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, with confiscation of half of the property.
- Anush Balian, Vice President of the NAAS: 7 years of imprisonment, 2 years of deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, with confiscation of half of the property.
- Svitlana Kovtun, former chief scientific secretary of the NAAS: 7 years of imprisonment, 2 years of deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, with confiscation of half of the property.
- Vitalii Oborskyi, SSU officer: 8 years of imprisonment, 2 years of deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, with confiscation of 2/3 of property, deprivation of the rank of colonel.
- Vasyl Petrychenko, former president of the NAAS: 7 years of imprisonment, 2 years of deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, with confiscation of half of the property.
The court also ruled to restore state ownership of 138 land plots with an area of 13.2564 hectares.
According to the NABU and the SAPO, almost 140 especially valuable land plots near Kyiv were intended for scientific research and ended up in the private ownership of NAAS officials, their relatives, as well as employees of the SSU and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine.
The investigation established that in 2013, NAAS officials, exceeding their powers, terminated the right of permanent use of the Chabany Research Farm for 144 land plots in the village of Hatne near Kyiv. As of the start date of the investigation, some of these land plots had been transferred to private ownership, and another 6 plots were in the process of re-registration. We covered this story in more detail in our article. During the trial, the defendants provided their explanations: here are some of them.
Anush Balian claimed that she had had no influence over the preparation of documents and had not been aware of the intention to privatize the land. She indicated that it was Hrynyk who prepared a letter from the SSU, which mentioned the consideration of the issue of land privatization by the Presidium of the NAAS. Hrynyk is the suspect, the proceedings against whom were closed. In addition, Balian stressed that the land was not particularly valuable and referred to the absence of such classes of soils in the list of “especially valuable” under the current Land Code.
Stanislav Hubin stated in his speech that it was during the trial that he had met with the other defendants for the first time, and the evidence of the prosecution was incomplete.
Despite the statements of the defense, the prosecutors insisted that the actions of the accused were unlawful and caused significant damage to the state.
There were more suspects in this case at the beginning. In January 2020, five senior officials of the NAAS were additionally served with suspicion notices of seizing state land plots. Among them were Yaroslav Hadzalo, the president of the NAAS; Ihor Hrynyk, the director of the Institute of Horticulture; Ihor Ibatullin, first vice-rector of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine; Anatolii Zaryshniak, vice president, chief academic secretary of the NAAS; and Viacheslav Vlasov, director of the National Scientific Center V.Ye. Tairov Institute of Viticulture. Their actions were qualified under Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, but in May 2020, the case against these persons was closed due to lack of evidence of mercenary motives during the voting.
The verdict of the court can still be appealed in the appellate instance.