The High Anti-Corruption Court has extended until October 14 the duties imposed on former Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solsky, but again softened them. This decision was made by the court on August 14, UNN reports.
During the court hearing, the prosecutor asked to extend the term of the obligation for another two months. At the same time, the defense insisted that there were no grounds for such a decision, as there were no risks stated by the prosecutor. The lawyers asked to impose a preventive measure on Solskiy in the form of a personal commitment and to allow him to visit his parents who live in Mykolaiv region.
The investigating judge granted the motion in part and extended the term of the duties imposed on Mykola Solskiy for two months. In particular, not to leave the city of Kyiv, Kyiv and Chernihiv regions without the permission of the investigator, prosecutor or judge. The court also allowed the former minister to travel to Mykolaiv region with the consent of the investigator, prosecutor or judge.
When checking the existence of risks substantiated by the prosecutor, the investigating judge proceeds from the fact that the risks existing at the initial stage of the investigation tend to decrease and lose their relevance as the criminal proceedings are investigated
As a reminder, the investigation in the case has been going on for 5 years, and the reasonable timeframe has been exhausted, but NABU continues to "drag its feet" and now plans to interrogate more than a thousand ATO soldiers, most of whom are defending the country at the front. The ATO soldiers, in turn, are outraged by NABU's actions.
In addition, the NABU is still waiting for a number of examinations to be completed, some of which have been conducted since October 2023, which is actually almost a year now. And, as you know, earlier, anti-corruption activists tried to "leak" and annul the examination, which they themselves had ordered, and which, obviously, was supposed to testify to Solskyi's innocence.
Recall
The NABU accused former Minister Mykola Solsky of assisting ATO veterans in privatizing land plots in Sumy region eight years ago. According to the detectives, the land was used by the National Agrarian Academy and could not be privatized.
However, the version of the detectives was refuted by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the National Academy of Sciences had no rights to these lands, as well as by expertswho studied the historical chronology of these lands from the 50s of the last century and also emphasized that these lands could not have been included in the land bank of the National Academy of Sciences.
Probably, for a long time, the NAAS could use the land that it had squatted and considered its own. This is evidenced, in particular, by the materials of some criminal proceedings, where NAAS employees were accused of squatting the land incriminated to Solsky and ATO veterans. The NAAS leased these lands to farmers for growing their crops, although this is expressly prohibited.
So now the main intrigue of the NABU case against former Minister Solsky is whether detectives will be able to prove their assumption that the land was indeed used by the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences. If they can't, which is highly likely, the former minister will be acquitted. As, by the way, former Minister Volodymyr Omelyan was acquitted. His detectives accused him of reducing port fees, which allegedly led to budget losses. However, all of the NABU's arguments, even those that were announced publicly, proved to be worthless in the High Anti-Corruption Court and had no causal connection. All three instances of the court ruled Omelyan's innocence. However, the SAPO detectives and prosecutors, who were supposed to oversee the legality of the actions of the NABU detectives, have not publicly apologized to the former minister. And prosecutors have not been punished for this.