An official from the Volyn Regional Council was caught taking bribes for emission permits

An official from the Volyn Regional Council was caught taking bribes for emission permits
Katerina Belousova

The official was taken under house arrest

In Volyn, law enforcement officers detained the head of the regional administration while receiving the last tranche of a bribe of 19,000 hryvnias for issuing a permit to emit pollutants into the atmosphere.

During August-October 2023, the official received a bribe from an entrepreneur three times in the total amount of 51 thousand hryvnias, the Office of the Prosecutor General reports.

It is noted that the official was informed of the suspicion of extorting and receiving an illegal benefit (Part 3 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine "Receiving a bribe in a particularly large amount or by an official who occupies a particularly responsible position").

"The court chose a preventive measure for the official in the form of house arrest," the message reads.

Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that Volodymyr Didukh, deputy director of the ecology department, was fired from the Khmelnytskyi regional state administration, who was convicted for bribery for assisting in the issuance of a permit for air emissions. Didukh agreed to pay a fine of 42,500 hryvnias for receiving a bribe.

As EcoPolitic previously reported, the police uncovered a corruption scheme of an official from the KMDA, who systematically demanded bribes for issuing permits for emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere and other permit documents.

Related
National park privatized: court orders return of Tsuman Forest lands to state
National park privatized: court orders return of Tsuman Forest lands to state

Prosecutors had to appeal to the court of appeals to defend the plots

Impunity for logging worth 16 million hryvnias: court acquits former head of national park and his accomplices
Impunity for logging worth 16 million hryvnias: court acquits former head of national park and his accomplices

Unique oak trees over a century and a half old were damaged in the crime

Digest of eco-crimes of the week: hotel complex in the forest and the struggle for national park lands
Digest of eco-crimes of the week: hotel complex in the forest and the struggle for national park lands

In Zakarpattia, the head of the forestry department "did not notice" the construction and full operation of a hotel and recreation complex in the forest