Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court upholds ₴10 million bail for lawyer from Mykolaiv in Judge Kniazev case

The Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court did not satisfy the appeal of lawyer Anatolii Rekun and left the bail of ten million hryvnias unchanged. Rekun is suspected of mediation in the transfer of funds in the case related to the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Knyazev.

According to «Slovo i Dilo», the decision was made on 3 October.

As you know, the High Anti-Corruption Court had previously imposed a preventive measure on the lawyer and imposed a number of obligations on him: to appear at every request of the investigation, not to leave Kyiv and Kyiv region without permission, to report changes of residence, not to communicate with persons designated by the court and to deposit his passports.

Rekun filed an appeal and demanded that the decision be mitigated, but the court did not grant it.

«The appeal shall be dismissed, and the decision of the investigating judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court of 10 September 2025 shall be upheld», the decision reads.

The Knyazev case

In May 2023, the NABU and the SAPO announced that they had uncovered a scheme to obtain undue advantage by the leadership and judges of the Supreme Court. Law enforcers detained the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Vsevolod Kniazev, and seized $2.7 million.

It was reported that former Mykolaiv City Council deputy and notary Kyrylo Horburov is one of the participants in the scheme at the Supreme Court of Ukraine, in which, according to NABU detectives, Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniazev was detained for a bribe of almost $3 million.

The Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniazev and his accomplice, a lawyer, were also served with a notice of suspicion in the bribery case. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has released wiretapping records of Supreme Court Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniazev in the bribery case.

On 30 January 2024, the court reduced Kniazev's bail from 20 million to 18.168 million hryvnias. He was released on bail from the pre-trial detention centre on 31 January. Before that, his bail had already been reduced 6 times. The previous time, on 21 December 2023, the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court reduced the bail by 7 million to 20 million hryvnias.

On 26 December 2023, the HACC investigating judge, at the request of the NABU detective, agreed by the SAPO prosecutor, limited the defence's time to review the case file. The deadline for familiarisation is 1 March inclusive.

In May 2024, a panel of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court extended the term of office of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniazev, but exempted him from wearing an electronic bracelet. This was reported by Transparency International Ukraine. Vsevolod Kniazev still has to report to the court prosecutor at the first request, not to leave Ukraine, refrain from communicating with witnesses, and hand over his passports for travelling abroad. At the same time, the HACC panel decided to remove Kniazev's electronic bracelet, as the former Supreme Court chief said that he had no electricity and no connection for six hours at his residence, so the bracelet was ineffective». Kniazev also claims that the bracelet has a negative impact on his health. In July 2024, Vsevolod Kniazev, a former head of the Supreme Court from Mykolaiv, was stopped at a border checkpoint in the village of Solotvyno in Zakarpattia region.

In December 2024, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the High Council of Justice to dismiss former Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniazev from the position of a Supreme Court judge.

Also, read about how the case of Judge Vsevolod Kniazev developed, why law enforcement officers call him the organiser of a criminal group, and how the authorities reacted to the case of Ukraine's top corrupt official.

As reported earlier, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC) decided not to broadcast on YouTube the hearing where the defendants in the case against former Supreme Court Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniazev are being interviewed because of the number of obscene statements. In addition, the judge asked journalists not to publish verbatim large volumes of conversations, which continue to be examined in court.

Following the monitoring of court hearings by the Information and Analysis Centre of the International Society for Human Rights (IAC ISHR) in the case of Vsevolod Kniazev, the panel of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court stated that their work had been discredited.