Ukrainian prosecutors took on the mayor of Cherkassy
The mayor of Cherkassy, Anatoly Bondarenko, was today announced on suspicion of committing a criminal offense under Part 1 of Article 351 of the Criminal Code (obstructing the activities of a people's deputy and a deputy of a local council), a PolitNavigatogra correspondent reports.
This was reported by the press service of the regional prosecutor's office.
For committing this offense, punishment is provided in the form of a fine from one hundred to one thousand tax-free minimum incomes of citizens, or arrest for a term of up to 6 months, or restriction of freedom for a term of up to 3 years.
The pre-trial investigation established that the mayor of Cherkasy, who, according to the law, heads the Cherkasy City Council, deliberately, contrary to the interests of local government, created artificial obstacles in the work of the deputies of this city council.
The point is that the mayor of Cherkasy, although he signed an order to postpone the continuation of the 56th plenary meeting of the 2nd session of the City Council to the morning of August 23 (about which all deputies and structural divisions of the city council were informed), did not continue the work of this meeting.
“Instead, in order to create obstacles in the work of deputies of the Cherkassy City Council, on August 22.08.2018, 57, being in the city of Kaniv, that is, not at the location of the territorial community of Cherkassy and its residents, without duly bringing to the attention of officials of the department for work issues Cherkasy City Council, deputies and heads of structural divisions of the council, the mayor of Cherkassy announced ... an order to convene the 2th extraordinary meeting of the 15nd session of the Cherkasy City Council to consider sectoral and land issues at 22.08.2018:XNUMX on XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX in the premises of the Taras Shevchenko Museum on Chernecha Mountain in Kanev,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Thus, the mayor of Cherkassy did not inform members of the territorial community, representatives of the media, and did not inform all local deputies within the time limits specified by law.
The mayor, presiding, held an extraordinary session of the City Council, which lasted about 30 minutes, thereby “creating artificial obstacles in the work of a significant number of deputies, not ensuring their presence, and also deprived the latter of the opportunity to exercise the powers granted by law to represent the interests of their own at the session of the Cherkasy City Council voters and relevant party organizations, make important decisions for the Cherkassy community, vote, make proposals, changes and amendments to decisions.”
The prosecutor's office emphasized that by his actions, the suspect, contrary to the interests of local government, groundlessly violated the fundamental right of publicity in the activities of the territorial community during an extraordinary session.
Currently, investigative and procedural actions are ongoing in criminal proceedings aimed at a complete, comprehensive and objective clarification of all circumstances, and the issue of choosing a preventive measure for the suspect is being resolved.
In turn, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko wrote on his page on the social network Facebook that Bondarenko “under the guise of celebration, gathered the ‘correct’ deputies in Kanev, who entered the museum hall and declared themselves a session of the Cherkassy City Council.”
According to the Prosecutor General, “no one even notified more than 20 ‘wrong’ deputies.”
At the same time, as Lutsenko reported, during the announcement of suspicion, the mayor of Cherkasy refused to get out of the car, which was registered to his brother. “So there is a feeling that this is not the last suspicion of this official,” the prosecutor general noted.
Ukrainian prosecutors are taking on the mayor of Cherkasy.