Ukraine’s top court acquits ex-infrastructure minister Omelyan

The Supreme Court of Ukraine has upheld an acquittal handed down by the High Anti-Corruption Court to former Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan in the case of a port fee cut in 2017.

The ex-minister announced the news on his Facebook page, Ukrinform reports.

"Today, the Supreme Court put an end to NABU speculations... The decision is final, not subject to review. I have been fully acquitted by both instances of HACC and the Supreme Court. I hope NABU will have the courage to publicly apologize, while an internal probe and, soon, an external independent audit, will find out whose orders the detective was performing while fabricating a case against me and the press service staffers – while slandering my name," he wrote.

In Omelyan's opinion, the court ruling initiates a very important judicial practice that no one should be tried for implementing reforms.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in October 2021, the High Anti-Corruption Court acquitted former Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan in the case of the port fees reduction.

The former minister was accused of issuing an order to reduce all port fees, except lighthouse duties, by 20%.

According to the invquiry, one of these fees — the administrative one — is a revenue part of the state budget, so only the Verkhovna Rada, not a minister, could alter its size. Also, the Ministry of Finance opposed the reduction of all port fees, stressing among other things that the cut of the administrative fee itself would lead to a drop in the revenue part of the state budget. The Ministry repeatedly pointed to this in communication with the minister of infrastructure about this, the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office said at the time.