The court found the briber, the agent of the law enforcement officers and acquitted two officials as victims of provocation

The court acquitted the ex-head of the legal Department GU of Derzeitiger in Cherkasy region Yury Shpak and former member of Smila city Council of Nikolay Senators who were accused of receiving $15 million bribe for the solution of the land question. This is stated in the judgment of Smila city district court on 21 August.

The investigation alleges that in October of 2015 Shpak demanded from the victim, which represented the interests of the farm “Agrofirma “Basis”, a $15 million bribe allegedly to transfer the VA. chief GU Derzeitiger in Cherkasy region on the extension of periods of validity of lease contracts of land plots. The middleman in obtaining money, according to the investigation, was then Deputy of Smila city Council of Nikolay Senator.

The defendants categorically denied his guilt, claiming that earlier personally didn’t even know me. The court considered their testimony, recognizing their consistent and truthful.”

The court concluded that the portion of the prosecution evidence obtained in flagrant violation of the law, while others did not prove the circumstances described in the indictment.

So, the court noted that the prosecution did not provide any evidence that the victim acted in the interests of “Agrofirm “Basis” as his statement that he had asked officials to Derzeitiger to address the issue of land lease.

Moreover, the court decided that the statement of the victim to law enforcement about the extortion he Shpak and Senator bribes, “furnished in the form of a Protocol on its adoption, the circumstances set out printed text that indicates the process of writing the text of the statement by law enforcement officials”.

“All these circumstances, combined with the testimony of this witness that he has an active public position, and has repeatedly engaged law enforcement officers in such proceedings give the court reason to believe that this witness is an agent of law enforcement, and systematically carries out their instructions,” reads the court’s decision.

The court drew an analogy with the decision of the European court of human Affairs in the case “Teixeira de Castro V. Portugal”, where it was recognized that the actions of the police officers went beyond the functions of undercover agents because they instigated the offence and there was no reason to believe that it would have been committed without their intervention. A similar situation Smelyansky the court found in the case Shpak and Senator.

The court also referred to the audio materials and desposition that, in his opinion, contain circumstances that justify the accused. In particular, the court notes that neither the one record nor the house nor Senator do not call any amount of money, and not talking about the need to transfer them to someone.

But the victim himself regularly speaks of the circumstances in this Shpak in such a situation indicates that he does not understand what was going on, and the Senator says that he will solve all the issues, and on the remark of the victim about the need to resolve the issue with someone else, said that it is not applicable. According to the court, is objectively indicate their unwillingness to support the communication of such content.

The court also noted that the prosecution provided no direct evidence that Shpak and the Senator know each other, they discussed the case of the victim between themselves and each of them.. the chief of regional management of Derzeitiger.

As a result, the court found the testimony of the victim about how the spac and the Senator persuaded him to pay a bribe to a senior official of Deligeoroglou, and other evidence which was obtained with its participation, including that produced as a result of provocation of law enforcement bodies, and therefore they are not admissible as evidence and cannot be taken into account.

The court came to the conclusion that the provocation of law enforcement officers was the fact that their agent was to provoke any of the employees GU Derzeitiger in Cherkasy region to bribery.

At sentencing, the court also referred to a number of procedural errors that were made the consequence. Among them – incorrectly entering data in the Unified register of pre-judicial investigations, which led to the fact that pre-trial investigation and a number of investigative actions were carried out in the framework of other criminal proceedings. Consequently, all obtained in the result of these actions, the evidence, including video and audio monitoring the suspects, found to be inadmissible.

The court came to the conclusion that the investigation has not proved the guilt of the spac and the Senator, and acquitted them.

The acquittal has not yet entered into force, there is time for filing an appeal.

Information taken from: http://nashigroshi.org/2017/09/12/sud-vyznav-habarodavtsya-ahentom-pravoohorontsiv-i-vypravdav-dvoh-chynovnykiv-yak-zhertv-provokatsiji/