Prosecutors of the Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor's Office have sent an indictment to the court regarding the former head of the regional State Geocadastre for abuse of office, which caused severe consequences (part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

According to the investigation, the official was fully aware that decisions on the transfer of community land into ownership or lease are made exclusively by village, settlement, and city councils. Despite this, in 2020–2021, acting in the interests of third parties, he illegally transferred three land plots with a total area of over 2.7 hectares from communal to private ownership.

In particular, 0.3 hectares were removed from the ownership of the Chernivtsi territorial community, and two other land plots with a total area of over 2.4 hectares were illegally removed from the ownership of the Zadubrivka village council in Chernivtsi region. The total amount of damages caused is nearly 3.5 million UAH.

The documents were processed based on the applications of the rights holders and were considered in the shortest possible time under the direct control of the official.

The pre-trial investigation was conducted by investigators of the Territorial Department of the State Bureau of Investigation located in the city of Khmelnytskyi.

Note: according to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a court verdict.