Kyiv's Pechersky District Court has postponed a hearing to consider the investigator's motion to change the preventive measure for former rector of the National State Tax Service University of Ukraine Petro Melnyk from house arrest to custody until August 12.

"The hearing has been postponed until 1600 on Monday," Melnyk's lawyer Ruslan Misiuna told Interfax-Ukraine.

Asked about the reason for the postponement, the lawyer said that it was the absence of the ex-rector.

As reported earlier on August 9, former rector of the National State Tax Service University of Ukraine Petro Melnyk, who is charged with bribe taking, escaped from house arrest, having removed his electronic tracking bracelets.

The Interior Ministry has put him on a wanted list, the ministry's press service reported.

Melnyk was detained on July 27, 2013, by employees of the main department for domestic security of the Income and Tax Ministry of Ukraine and the main department for the fight against organized crime of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine. The rector is alleged to have demanded from two Ukrainian citizens bribes of UAH 40,000 and UAH 80,000 to accept their relatives' entry to university.