The Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has partly revised the sentence of former Ternopil Regional Council head Mykhailo Holovko, sentencing him to nine years in prison, the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC) reported.
Holovko was taken into custody in the courtroom immediately after the ruling.
The decision was delivered by a panel of HACC Appeals Chamber judges: Oleksandr Semennykov, Inna Kaluhina and Andrii Nykyforov.
The judges partly upheld Holovko's defence appeal, removing the charge of illegal possession of certain ammunition.
However, they upheld his conviction for soliciting and accepting a UAH 600,000 bribe from a businessman and volunteer.
In June 2023, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) announced that they had exposed then Ternopil Regional Council head Mykhailo Holovko, along with Ihor Demianchuk and Ihor Haiduk, two deputy heads of the Ternopil Regional Military Administration.
According to investigators, the officials demanded UAH 1.8 million and received UAH 600,000 in bribes.
Law enforcement authorities said the money was to be paid in exchange for signing completion certificates for the construction and repair of facilities belonging to a municipal enterprise of the Ternopil Regional Council, as well as for settling outstanding debts owed by the regional administration to a contractor that had completed the work in 2022.
The officials were detained immediately after receiving the first instalment of the bribe, amounting to UAH 600,000.
Holovko is a member of the Svoboda party and previously served as a member of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada.