Volodymyr Kharchenko, the acting rector of National Aviation University of Ukraine, was detained by the National Anti-corruption Bureau detectives and Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s office and Security Service officers on Aug 26 on carges of taking 100,000 euro bribe for a job appointment. In turn, Kharchenko claims being set up.
Later, on Aug 27 Anti-corruption Bureau reported on its website that during the search in Kharchenko’s apartment, detectives found Hr 1.5 million, $50,000, 70,000 euro and 3,000 pounds in cash and also confiscated nine gold bars.
“For now, detained acting rector and his lawyer are in the hospital with health complaints. We are preparing the note of suspicion for them,” read the statement.
In response, Kharchenko posted a Facebook statement, that he was slandered by the former vice-rector Maksym Lutskiy, ex-lawmaker of the Party of Regions. Lutskiy is also a close ally of Dmytro Tabachnik, an education minister in the ousted president Viktor Yanukovych government, who is currently evading Ukrainian search warrant abroad.
“This all is a lie, and the investigation will prove the set up, believe me! We are deeply concerned by the revanche of the criminal authorities (of the Yanukovych times). During their ruling, they used the university for secret business deals and scams. I ask the General Prosecutor’s office and the President to take control on this case,” Kharchenko wrote on Aug.26.
In 2015, soon after his appointment, Kharchenko dismissed Lutskiy, who then contested the decision in court. According to State Court Decisions Registry, in July 2016 the Kyiv Court of Appeal canceled Kharchenko’s decision and ordered to renew Lutskiy on his post.
Lutskiy was unavailable for comments.
In 2015 the aviation school was named among Ukraine’s top five universities, according to Webometrics Ranking Web of Universities.
According to the Public Land Cadastre of Ukraine, the Aviation University has permanent use rights to a 38.2 hectare municipal land plot in Solomianski district of Kyiv. Quite curiously, the city also permits residential and commercial construction on the same land plot.
Kseniia Semenova-Shelevytska, aspirant and activist of the university’s internal watchdog council, claims the huge centrally located land plot has been the source of abuse by the University officials long before the Kharchenko case.
“From the 2008 everything in sight is being stolen (at the university). Now, when Kharchenko was arrested, the media blew up. But why they were silent when (former rector) Mykola Kulik gave away the University land for construction?” she wrote on Facebook.
Kulyk is currently under Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office investigation on suspicion of negligence which led to grave consequences.
