The former head of the Ternopil Regional Council was sentenced to 9 years for taking a bribe – he lost consciousness during the sentencing

The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC) has sentenced Mykhailo Holovko, former head of the Ternopil Regional Council and former member of parliament from the Svoboda party, to nine years in prison with confiscation of all property. The sentence was handed down in a case involving a bribe of 600,000 hryvnias from a volunteer.

The court session was streamed on the HACC’s official YouTube channel.

In addition to the prison sentence and property confiscation, the court ordered the former official to post bail of 15 million hryvnias (approximately €312,400) within five days and imposed procedural obligations until the verdict becomes legally binding.

During the announcement of the sentence, Holovko began to lose consciousness but later regained it.

The verdict can still be appealed.

To recap: Holovko and his deputy were accused of extorting nearly 1.8 million hryvnias (about €37,488) and accepting a 600,000-hryvnia bribe (around €12,496) from a businessman-volunteer. The money was allegedly demanded in exchange for signing off on completed construction and infrastructure repair work carried out by a communal enterprise under the Ternopil Regional Council.

After the criminal case was launched, Holovko was dismissed from his post as head of the regional council, but a court later reinstated him. However, in August of last year, council deputies removed him from office again.