IANS | 26 Apr, 2024
Ukraine's highest anti-corruption court has ordered the pre-trial
detention of Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi on suspicion of
misappropriation of state land worth millions.
The preventive measure is initially set to run until June 24,
media in Kyiv reported on Friday, citing the court. There is a
possibility that Solskyi will be released on bail, the reports said. The
minister had previously submitted his resignation but continued to deny
any guilt.
Parliamentary Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk published the
handwritten letter of resignation on Facebook on Thursday. Parliament
will decide on the dismissal soon, Stefanchuk wrote.
Investigators
from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau had handed Solskyi a notice of
suspicion on Tuesday. The minister is alleged to have brought a total
of 1,250 plots of land totalling almost 2,500 hectares into the
possession of his agricultural holding between 2017 and 2021.
According
to the investigators, this involved a value of 291 million hryvnia
($7.34 million). The law enforcement authorities said they also thwarted
the attempt, which is said to have involved further plots of land worth
190 million hryvnia.
The minister denied the allegations. "There
was no corruption. Nobody took any money," Solskyi wrote in a statement
broadcast by public television.
"Furthermore, none of the suspects had signed over land to themselves or relatives," he added.
Solskyi,
a lawyer by profession, had previously admitted that in 2017, he had
represented several private individuals in a dispute over land against
state-owned companies in the Sumy region in question.
In 2019,
Solskyi was elected to the unicameral parliament, the Supreme Council or
Rada, via the presidential party list in the early elections initiated
by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He chaired the agriculture committee from 2019 until he was appointed minister of agriculture in March 2022.