Judge Who Allegedly Killed On-Duty Soldier While Driving Drunk Denied Bail

A high-ranking Kyiv district judge arrested for allegedly killing an on-duty National Guard serviceman in May while drunk at the wheel, has been denied bail.

Judge Oleksiy Tandyr – who was the head judge at the Makarovsky District Court in the Kyiv Region – is accused of being under the influence of alcohol and speeding when he drove his car through barricades and hit National Guard serviceman Vadym Bondarenko.

Bondarenko died at the scene on the night of May 26 in Kyiv.

Tandyr was, according to Ukrainian legal procedures, “informed of suspicion of committing a fatal accident under the influence of alcohol.” If found guilty, the penalty could be up to ten years in prison.

In an arraignment the following day, May 27, the court ordered the preventive measure of detention until July 21 without the possibility of bail.

The court, at the request of the prosecutor’s office, ordered the accused to take toxicology tests for alcohol and drugs, since he had refused to take them. In court, Tandyr claimed that at the time of the accident he was sober and had not drunk alcohol the day before.

On June 2, the High Council of Justice suspended Tandyr from his judicial duties.

In July, the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) reported that one of the forensic psychological examinations showed that the judge was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident.

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On July 10, the source Facty ICTV published information released by the DBR regarding the results of the forensic examination. Investigators said that Tandyr, having special legal knowledge and professional skills, took measures to hide traces of alcohol intoxication and make it impossible to determine the amount of alcohol in the biological fluid samples.

“Based on the results obtained, we can state that judge Tandyr was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the fatal accident is proven. This is fully confirmed by the conclusions of the forensic psychological examination,” the DBR press service reported.