The president of Ukraine’s Supreme Court has been sacked after being arrested in a bribery investigation, two anti-corruption agencies said on Tuesday.
The agencies did not name the president, but said he was the chief justice of the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, Vsevolod Knyazev was removed from his post as chief justice after a majority of the court’s judges voted to remove him from his position, according to local news reports.
Authorities accused justice of taking a $2.7 million bribe.
“This is a dark day in the history of the court,” the court’s judges said in a joint statement. “We must deserve and withstand such a blow.”
The judges added that they will fully cooperate with investigations and that the court must “act on the principle of self-purification, taking all necessary measures.”
Mr. Knyazev remains a Supreme Court justice; a separate body, the Supreme Judicial Council, has the power to remove him, according to Ukrinforma state news agency.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau posted Facebook photo which included piles of US dollars stacked on tables and sofas. The agency’s director, Semen Kryvonos, said a bribe was paid to make a judgment in favor of the Financial and Credit financial group, which is owned by a prominent businessman, according to Reuters.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office said on Telegram that it and the office “caught the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and a lawyer red-handed while receiving an illegal gain.”
Corruption, and Ukraine’s long struggle against it, mostly came to public attention after the Russian invasion last February, when Ukrainians rallied around the military and government. government at a time when the country is in danger.
