In Bila Tserkva, more than two dozen innocent citizens could end up in prison due to a conspiracy between fraudsters, law enforcement officials, and judges.

Currently, 17 people are being held in the capital’s pretrial detention center on charges of extortion. However, there were no weapons, no physical injuries, and no victims of the actions of this so-called “criminal group.”

According to preliminary information, several questionable individuals—who are currently calling themselves victims—borrowed money from a large number of creditors. And when the time came to repay the money they had borrowed, the debtors could think of nothing better than to accuse the lenders of extortion and have them thrown in jail.

The police opened a case against the lenders; their defense in the ongoing court proceedings is being handled by our partner, Alexander Shadrin, an attorney at Barristers LLP, and Alexander Tananakin, an attorney at Barristers LLP.

However, throughout the entire course of this so-called criminal proceeding, law enforcement officials have conducted no investigative actions other than searches and arrests. No one even bothered to pretend that the case was being investigated. But despite the lack of any evidence against the defendants and the obvious bias of law enforcement, the judges for some reason decided to keep the innocent residents of Bila Tserkva in custody.

Also, one of the victims is a defendant in another court case—regarding the collection of a monetary debt from him. A coincidence? Hardly. And nobody seems to care. Recently, the court decided to extend the pretrial detention period for one of the defendants—Oleksandr Bobr—by another 60 days and to designate him as the leader of an organized criminal group.