The court did not send former Defense Ministry official Oleksandr Liyev, who is suspected of embezzling funds for ammunition purchases, into pre-trial detention, Transparency International Ukraine said on April 17.
Liyev, who was the head of the ministry's Department of Military Technical Policy, and other officials are suspected of embezzling about Hr 1.5 billion ($38 million) for the purchase of 100,000 mortar rounds in October 2022.
The said munitions have never been delivered even though the Defense Ministry paid the supplying company, the Lviv Arsenal.
Liyev was taken into custody on Feb. 12 but released a month later. On April 9, the High Anti-Corruption Court's Appeals Chamber overruled his release but did not send the ex-official back into custody as the original date of detention had expired on April 8.
The State Bureau of Investigation announced earlier on April 17 that the former Defense Ministry officials would appear in court in relation to the embezzlement case.
"Today, the High Anti-Corruption Court re-examined the defense's motion to change the pretrial detention, but the need for this has already expired, so the court left the motion without consideration," Transparency International said.
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine's Defense Ministry has been involved in several corruption scandals. The most notorious led to the dismissal of former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, one regarding inflated prices for food supplies and the other connected to low-quality winter jackets.
Igor Kossov
(Updated: )
