Investigators have received information that MP Andriy Odarchenko illegally crossed the border with Romania and applied for asylum in that country. This was stated by the prosecutor during a meeting of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) on 23 September, reports Komersant ukrainskyi
“According to available information… Odarchenko crossed the state border outside the border crossing point with Romania and then applied for asylum to the Romanian authorities. These are new circumstances. We can say that he is hiding from the court,”
– said the prosecutor.
She also said that Odarchenko had failed to appear in court for the third time, and that attempts by law enforcement officers to bring him in had failed because he was not at home. His car was parked near the deputy’s place of residence, with an “unofficial driver” in it. The driver said that a few days ago Odarchenko had asked him to drop him off in the centre of Kyiv, left his phones charging at home and said that he would walk to the Verkhovna Rada. The driver has not seen him since.
Documents from 50 hospitals submitted to the court confirm that Odarchenko was not hospitalised, although his defence claimed that he could have been. Official responses from the Verkhovna Rada and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also failed to confirm the facts of his business trip or the use of a diplomatic passport, and the border service noted that no official border crossing was recorded.
The judge read out a document from a detective stating that Odarchenko had illegally crossed the border near Krasnoilsk in Chernivtsi region, was in Romania and had applied for temporary protection, having received a relevant document.
In this regard, the prosecutor of the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) filed a motion to forfeit Odarchenko’s bail in favour of the state and change the measure of restraint from bail to detention.
Odarchenko’s defence, in turn, stated that his being put on the wanted list was “premature”, as it had not yet been established that the MP’s absence from court was without valid reasons. The lawyer also added that there was no confirmation of Odarchenko’s stay abroad.
However, the HACC granted the prosecutor’s motion: the state will receive UAH 15 million bail paid for Odarchenko last year, and a preventive measure in the form of detention was imposed on him in absentia.
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What Andrii Odarchenko is suspected of
In November 2023, the NABU served Andriy Odarchenko with a notice of suspicion for attempting to bribe Mustafa Nayem, head of the State Agency for Reconstruction, in bitcoins. According to the agency, in return for the money, the MP asked for a decision to allocate money from the fund for the elimination of the consequences of Russian aggression to repair the buildings of the university where the MP was rector at the time.
In addition, the prosecutor’s office published his conversation with Nayem. In it, the MP said that he did not believe in Ukraine’s victory, and that Volodymyr Zelenskyi would be forced to negotiate with Russia, so the president wanted to hold elections before then.
Odarchenko himself stated that he had spoken to Nayem on “various topics” on several occasions, did not offer a bribe, and allegedly asked him to teach him how to use a crypto wallet.
The next day, the court imposed a pre-trial restraint in the form of detention with the possibility of bail in the amount of UAH 15 million.
on 23 November 2023, the Servant of the People suspended Odarchenko’s membership in the faction.
On 24 November, the suspect exercised his right to be released on bail.