A Ukrainian judge from Kyiv’s Dniprovsky District Court, Mykola Chaus, who was allegedly caught in August taking a $150,000 bribe, is now seeking political asylum in Moldova.
Lawyers representing Chaus have sent his asylum application to Moldovan President Igor Dodon, Moldova’s Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Viorel Morari has said, according to reports made late on March 9 by independent Ukrainian media Hromadske Radio and Ukrainian News, a news website.
The Kyiv Post has not yet received any confirmation of these reports from either the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Moldova, or from the Presidential Administration of Moldova.
Morari also told Hromadske Radio that Moldovan prosecutors have already started procedures to extradite Chaus from Moldova to Ukraine, and “there have been no changes in terms of this issue.”
Earlier this week, on March 7, Ukraine’s Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office announced that it has sent documents on the extradition of Chaus to their Moldovan colleagues.
Chaus was detained in Moldova on Feb. 28 after crossing the border illegally. He was formally arrested on March 2 by a Moldovan court in the country’s capital, Chisinau.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau said it caught Chaus accepting a $150,000 bribe on Aug. 9. But, according to Ukrainian law, Chaus being a judge could not be arrested without parliament’s prior approval, and he fled the country before it was given.
Verkhovna Rada on Sept. 6 stripped Chaus of his immunity and backed a motion of the Prosecutor General’s Office to detain and arrest the judge. By that time, however, he was already reported to be hiding in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Kyiv’s Solomyansky court sanctioned the judge’s arrest on Sept. 12, 2016. Two months later, on Nov. 11, Chaus was placed on Interpol’s international wanted list.
Chaus has been accused of acting under orders from the Presidential Administration – a claim denied by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
In December 2015, Chaus issued an arrest warrant for Gennady Korban, an ally of oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and political opponent of Poroshenko, in a kidnapping and embezzlement case. Lawyers argue that Korban’s arrest occurred in violation of numerous procedures.
In another questionable incident in 2016, Chaus removed Yury Ivanyushchenko, an ally of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych charged with embezzlement, from the wanted list. The Supreme Court closed the Ivanyushchenko case on Feb. 28.
And during the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014, Chaus also issued rulings against protesters.
