The Kyiv Court of Appeals has reduced the bail for former judge Oleksiy Tandyr by UAH 100 million — from almost UAH 120 million to UAH 20 million. He is accused of a fatal road accident that killed National Guardsman Vadym Bondarenko.
This is reported by a Babel correspondent from the courtroom.
Tandyr himself asked the court to release him from the pre-trial detention center on personal obligations. His lawyers asked to completely lift the preventive measure.
Tandyrʼs lawyers referred to the fact that ECHR recognized that Tandyrʼs detention in court for 2.8 years violates the Human Rights Convention.
The lawyers also said that ECHR recognized that there was no evidence that if released from the pre-trial detention center, Tandyr would flee the court, pressure witnesses, and distort evidence. This is how the prosecutor argued for the need to keep Tandyr in the pre-trial detention center.
Representatives of the deceased Bondarenko recalled that Tandyr and his lawyers were dragging out the process: out of 100 scheduled hearings, only 50 took place because the lawyers did not come, resigned, and constantly filed challenges to the judge.
Witnesses also testified at the trial, confirming that Tandyr smelled of alcohol after the accident. At the checkpoint, he said that he was not driving, and when asked if he knew that he smelled of alcohol, he replied: "I know."
Tandyrʼs case
On May 26, 2023, the now former head of the Makariv District Court of the Kyiv region Oleksiy Tandyr drove his Lexus ES350 three minutes before curfew and hit 22-year-old National Guardsman Vadym Bondarenko, who was on duty at a checkpoint (Beresteyskyi Avenue — the entrance to Kyiv from the Zhytomyr highway). Vadym was thrown 30 meters from the impact. He hit the windshield with his head and died instantly.
After the accident, Tandyr was detained and sent to a pre-trial detention center. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
The examination established that Oleksiy Tandyr submitted water and saliva for analysis instead of urine — in this way he tried to falsify the examination so that it would not prove that he was drunk at the time of the accident.
Babel learned that in December 2023, Oleksiy Tandyr transferred his property to his wife and divorced her. In fact, he lost the property that the family of the deceased National Guardsman had requested to be seized. On December 20, the court seized Tandyrʼs land plot and money that were in his bank account. The court refused to seize the apartment and parking space that Tandyr transferred to his wife.
In August 2024, Tandyr was dismissed from his position as a judge.
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