Only 1,700 of 9,400 corruption suspects sentenced in 2017, 107 receive jail sentences
Of the more than 9,400 corruption suspects tried during 2017 less than 1,7 were convicted, with the majority receiving suspended sentences, chief of Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) Yuriy Lutsenko has said.
"We arrested a record number of corruption suspects last year receiving or offering bribes, some 9,425 persons. Some 1,692 have been put on trial. That's three times more than in any other year. Yes, most of them received suspended sentences, and only 107 of them received jail sentences," Lutsenko said in an interview published by Kyiv-based Segodnia (Today) newspaper published on Thursday.
Lutsenko said judges have the authority to hand down less severe penalties, noting that in 2015 Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada adopted legislation forbidding them to do so. Therefore, he said, the PGO is conducting a check to see how many of the 1,692 put on trial committed crimes after 2015.
"If there are those who committed crimes after 2015, and I am sure they make up more than half, this means judges delivered incorrect verdicts. I promise that if this is the case the PGO will initiate criminal proceedings against the judges who handed down incorrect verdicts," Lutsenko said.
The PGO chief said, "A suspended sentence is a big penalty for some, because they will not be allowed to return to state service. It's a 'wolf's ticket."
Lutsenko said punishing corrupt officials is "not the only and not even the main way to root out corruption. …By arresting a bribe giver or bribe taker, we, that is, the government, do not remove the cause for new crimes. Therefore, the most important thing is to destroy the foundation upon which corruption rests."