Court sentences ex-MP Onyshchenko to 15 years in prison in absentia

The higher anti-corruption court found former Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleksandr Onyshchenko guilty of organizing gas schemes and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

The Supreme Court announced the verdict on Friday, April 5, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

The accused was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 15 years and a fine of UAH 15,300, with the confiscation of all property belonging to him by right of ownership and with the deprivation of the right to be elected to state and local self-government bodies, as well as to hold public service positions in state authority, another state body, its apparatus (secretariat) and deprivation of the right to business activity for a period of three years.

By the same verdict, Olena Pavlenko was found guilty of involvement in the gas schemes.

She was sentenced to 12 years in prison with the same additional punishment.

The judges also partially satisfied the civil lawsuit and charged Onyshchenko and Pavlenko UAH 536.65 million.

The decision was made by a panel of judges consisting of the presiding judge Lesia Fedorak, judges Ihor Strohyi and Viktor Maslov.

The verdict has not entered into legal force. It can be appealed to the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine within 30 days.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine seized a stable and other property in Germany, the actual owner of which is the suspect of creating an illegal gas scheme, former member of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Onyshchenko.

According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NACB), Onyshchenko is the founder and head of a criminal organization whose members, between January 2013 and June 2016, embezzled UAH 1.6 billion during the sale of natural gas as part of joint venture agreements with UkrGasVydobuvannya.

Detectives established the involvement of 29 people in the gas scheme.