Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv imposed a pre-trial restraint for the suspect of organizing a criminal grouping which squeezed money from the local businessmen hiding behind Kharkiv City Association of ATO (Anti-terrorist operation, - ed.) veterans, as Interfax-Ukraine reported referring to the representatives of the local Prosecutor’s Office.
The Court sentenced the suspect to 24-hour house arrest.
The representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office specified that the prosecution insisted on a more severe restrictive measure – detention in custody.
The decision whether to appeal against the sentence has not been made yet.
As the Prosecutor’s Office informed, in July 2018 the suspect along with his friends attacked a construction site of a gas station. The attackers damaged the construction materials. Later, the suspect met with the representative of the owner of the site and demanded $50,000 and then, he and his friends would stop impeding the further construction. Then, the sum was reduced to $30,000. Besides, the blackmailer and his friends convinced the businessman’s representative that if he refuses, the construction works will be forcefully stopped. In the middle of August of 2018, the representative of the builder gave the blackmailer $10,000. On September 13, when another part of the sum, $20,000, was being transferred, the law enforcers detained the suspect.
