KYIV - Anti-corruption authorities in Ukraine said on Tuesday they had detained the head of the country's Supreme Court in an investigation they cast as an important step in Kyiv's fight against high-level graft.
Kyiv has redoubled efforts to clamp down on corruption despite Russia's invasion, and doing so is vital to meet the conditions for joining the European Union.
Oleksandr Omelchenko, a prosecutor at the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (Sapo), said the Supreme Court's top judge had been detained as part of a suspected bribery scheme and was awaiting a formal "notice of suspicion".
Omelchenko did not identify the judge by name but the head of the court is Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniaziev, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
"At this time, the head of the Supreme Court has been detained and measures are being taken to check other individuals for involvement in criminal activity," Omelchenko told a joint briefing with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.
The anti-corruption bureau had announced on Monday that anti-corruption agencies were investigating large-scale corruption in the Supreme Court system, and shared a photograph of piles of dollars neatly lined up on a sofa.
In a statement, anti-corruption bureau said the head of the Supreme Court was suspected of taking a $2.7-million bribe.
The agency's chief, Semen Kryvonos, said this was the most high-profile case that Ukrainian agencies, which are fighting corruption, were investigating.
"We are showing through real cases, real deeds, what our priority is: it's top corruption, it's criminal organisations at the highest levels of power," he said.
Kryvonos said the bribe was paid for ruling in favour of the Finance and Credit financial group, owned by prominent businessman Konstiantyn Zhevago, and may be part of a broader scheme to pressure the court.
Zhevago has denied wrongdoing.
In an emergency session on Tuesday, Ukraine's Supreme Court condemned corruption. It said it would fully co-operate with the investigation and initiated a process for expressing no-confidence in Kniaziev.
In January, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said that corruption, the country's chronic problem cast into the background by the war against Russia, would not be tolerated and promised forthcoming key decisions on uprooting it this week.
His pledge came amid allegations of senior-level corruption, including a report of dubious practices in military procurement despite officials promoting national unity to confront the invasion.
"I want this to be clear: there will be no return to what used to be in the past, to the way various people close to state institutions or those who spent their entire lives chasing a chair used to live," Zelensky said in a nightly video address in January.
Ukraine has had a long history of rampant corruption and shaky governance, with Transparency International ranking the country's corruption at 122 of 180 countries, not much better than Russia in 2021.
The EU has made anti-corruption reforms one of its key requirements for Ukraine's membership after granting Kyiv the candidate status last year.
REUTERS