The ex-head of the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine was arrested in the case of illegal privatization and the threat of murder

Former head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council Yevgeny Udod was taken into custody with the right to be released on bail of 1.135 million hryvnia (about $ 41.6 thousand). He is suspected of abuse of power (part 2 of article 364 of the Criminal Code) and threat of murder (part 1 of article 129 of the Criminal Code). The prosecutor’s office disagrees with the amount of the bail and will appeal.

About the arrest of a former official informs press office of the National Police. “According to the investigation, being the head of the regional council, (Hoopod) illegally made a decision to transfer over 500 state transformer substations into the ownership of a private enterprise, bypassing the privatization procedure and submitting the issue for consideration to the regional council deputies,” the ministry said in a statement. As a result, objects worth more than 9.7 million hryvnia were transferred to private hands.

Currently, the suspect is the first deputy head of the Kryvyi Rih City Council, Yuriy Vilkul. In this position, Hoopoe, according to investigators, threatened witnesses with murder. He forced them not to talk about his illegal actions and to sign deliberately false official documents, writes “Ukrainska Pravda” citing a law enforcement source.

Hoopoe headed the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Council from June 2010 to December 2015. He was elected from the Party of Regions, whose leader was the then President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

After the 2014 protests, which ended in clashes with the security forces, the flight of Yanukovych from the country and the change of power, Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema opened a criminal case against Udod. According to the investigation, the chairman of the regional council used the “titushki” to attack the protesters who gathered on January 26, 2014 at the walls of the regional administration. Then dozens of people were beaten.

A month after the start of the investigation, the criminal proceedings were terminated.

In 2012, Yevhen Udod signed a collective letter to an American court asking him to release the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavel Lazarenko from prison. Lazarenko was convicted in the United States of corruption on an especially large scale and money laundering.