The Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court has resumed the consideration of the case of the accused former Member of Parliament of the VIII convocation, Andriy Levus, three years after the hearings were suspended.
This was revealed through the court registry.
The basis for this was a motion by the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which stated that in early September 2024, the accused former MP, who had been mobilized to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in November 2022, was discharged from military service. This occurred based on the conclusion of a military medical commission regarding Levus’s unfitness for military service.
Separately, the prosecutor noted that in the summer of this year, amendments to the Law "On Military Duty and Military Service" came into effect, prohibiting the recruitment of individuals accused of committing serious and/or especially serious corruption-related criminal offenses, and whose criminal cases are at the stage of judicial review, into the army.
According to the case materials, Andriy Levus is accused of abuse of power (Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code). According to the investigation, during 2014-2017, the accused received UAH 543,900 in compensation for renting a room at the parliamentary hotel "Kyiv." According to the prosecution, these payments were illegal, as at that time Andriy Levus owned an apartment in the capital, which belonged to his wife.
In May 2021, the High Anti-Corruption Court acquitted the former MP and found him not guilty. The key argument of the court in favor of the accused was the imperfect legislative framework regarding the regulation of housing issues for non-local Members of Parliament (at the time of election, Andriy Levus was registered in Stryi, Lviv region). The court also took into account Levus’s testimony, in which he assured that he used the hotel room not only for accommodation but also as one of his workplaces. Additionally, the former MP claimed that he was often forced to live separately from his wife in the hotel room due to difficulties in family relations.
In June 2021, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office appealed the acquittal verdict. At the end of December 2022, the appellate instance suspended the consideration of the case until Andriy Levus was discharged from military service.
Between 2022 and 2025, the High Anti-Corruption Court resumed the consideration of 15 criminal proceedings that had been suspended due to the mobilization of the accused into the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
At the same time, during the invasion, the Anti-Corruption Court suspended 54 criminal proceedings in which the accused joined the army to serve.