Investigators from the Kyiv Regional Office of the State Bureau of Investigations, on February 14, 2020, notified an associate of the head of one of the departments of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine that he was suspected of receiving an unlawful benefit on an especially large scale (Part 5 of Article 27, Part 4 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

This was reported on the SBI website.

The Kyiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office is overseeing the pretrial investigation in this criminal proceeding. Operational support is being provided by the Strategic Investigations Department in Kyiv of the National Police’s Strategic Investigations Service.

According to Special Correspondents, the State Bureau of Investigations has notified Igor Oleksandrovych Gruzdev of the charges against him; who is suspected of aiding the head of one of the departments of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, who was detained for accepting a bribe of 2.5 million hryvnias. This was reported by the SBI’s press service.

On February 17, 2020, an investigating judge of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv considered a motion to impose a preventive measure in the form of pretrial detention during a court hearing.

M.V. Dzhevaga, an attorney with the law firm “Barristers” who served as the defense counsel for I.O. Gruzdev, demonstrated the unfounded nature of the alleged risks, numerous procedural violations, and the prosecution’s bias against the suspect, which led to the denial of the motion to impose pretrial detention on I.O. Gruzdev.

Unfortunately, the defense team for the official of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine failed to prove that the case was clearly fabricated during another court hearing, when the preventive measure was being determined, which resulted in his detention with the option of posting bail in the amount of 1.05 million UAH.

In the video below, M.V. Dzhevaga, an attorney with the law firm “Barristers,” and suspect I.O. Gruzdev comment on the circumstances of the case.