Ukraine supreme court chief detained over $2.7m bribe claim

KYIV: Ukraine said on Tuesday that law enforcement had detained the head of the country´s supreme court in a $2.7 million bribery inquiry, as Kyiv seeks to ramp up an anti-corruption drive required for closer EU integration.

Following Vsevolod Kniaziev´s detention, 140 out of 142 justices backed a decision to remove him from office at a plenum of the Supreme Court.

Since Ukraine was officially granted candidate status to join the European Union last year it has taken steps to clear up endemic corruption, including dismissing several suspected officials.

“The head of the supreme court has been detained,” Oleksandr Omelchenko, a prosecutor with Ukraine´s anti-corruption prosecutor´s office, told reporters in Kyiv.

Omelchenko said two people, including the court´s chief Kniaziev, had been detained as part of the investigation.

Ukraine´s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said the second person detained was a lawyer. “This is the biggest-ever case” implicating the judiciary, said NABU´s head Semen Kryvonos.

Kryvonos likened a group of judges within the supreme court who were implicated in the probe to a “criminal group”, with the anti-corruption bureau releasing a picture of stacks of $100 bills laid out on a couch.