In a surreal case, Judge Mykola Chaus turned himself in dressed only in shorts in rural Ukraine after being kidnapped in Moldova.
KYIV — A Ukrainian judge who stashed some $150,000 of bribes in pickle jars and went on the run to Moldova before being “kidnapped” and hauled back home was locked up on Wednesday for a decade.
Mykola Chaus, a former judge of the Dnipro District Court of Kyiv, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for bribery and his assets were confiscated, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine reported Wednesday.
Chaus received $150,000 unlawfully and now also faces a three-year ban from working as a judge, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine said in a statement. Even though Chaus still has 30 days to file an appeal, watchdogs celebrated the sentence as a victory for Ukraine’s anti-corruption system.
