Country estates with their own ponds and spas, apartments in top residential complexes of the regional center, the departure of an adult son to Europe during the war - these are some of the attributes of the comfortable life of judge Nikolai Osedach and his colleagues from the Chernigov Court of Appeal.
However, there is also the other side of the coin - a number of dubious decisions made by these same servants of Themis. Like the release from custody of those involved in serious crimes or 7 years in prison for a businessman for... selling his own car.
What is the relationship between shocking verdicts and elite assets? How can you earn money in the civil service for a luxury apartment, car and dacha? And we are not talking about a real conflict of interests in the actions of Osedach and Co.? Alla Martyn investigated the scandals and condition of Chernigov judges.
A trio of judges of the Chernihiv Court of Appeal - Nikolai Osedach, Valentina Antipets and Valery Zobolotny - came to the attention of StopCor investigators due to a number of strange decisions made by this court. In particular, according to media reports, they justified illegal hunters.
“It took Judge Antipets no more than an hour to miss all the investigative actions and developments in the high-profile case and acquit the poacher who killed two moose in the Ichnyan region,” reports Public Correspondent.
In addition, Chernigov judges, as local publications report, have repeatedly acquitted... the murderers. They also delayed the processes against corrupt officials. We are talking, in particular, about the permanent postponement of the consideration of the case of the mayor of Mena, Gennady Primakov, and the deputy of the Minsk City Council, Valery Gaidukevich, accused of bribery.
“And while the mentioned judges of the Chernigov appeal are releasing real criminals, these same servants of Themis make no less shocking decisions: for example, seven years, not probation, but in real prison for selling... your own car without the consent of your wife,” the journalist notes.
What kind of case are we talking about exactly?
Entrepreneur Oleg Averyanov was convicted by the Chernigov Court of Appeal for selling his own car. He says the verdict literally shocked him.
“My ex-wife, who is a complainant in this case, claims that I stole her car. But this car, according to her testimony, and she confirmed this in court, was purchased with my personal funds. He was sold during marriage without his wife’s consent “The prosecutor’s office demanded 10 years in prison for me with confiscation of all property. The Court of Appeal of the Chernihiv region decided unanimously to sentence me to seven years in prison,” says the businessman.
Oleg Averyanov himself calls this decision a reprisal against his opponents, because he is a known businessman in Ukraine and was previously involved in politics. He owns the Pozhmashina enterprise, well-known in Ukraine, which Averyanov not only owns, but also manages. So this verdict for the sale of one’s own passenger car could also affect the activities of a strategic enterprise for the country in war conditions, and a thousand workers and their families could be left without a livelihood, the businessman is sure.
“The company is the main manufacturer in Ukraine of firefighting, rescue equipment and vehicles for humanitarian demining. Almost 80% of the equipment that we see on TV and that saves people during emergencies, during flights, and during fires is all our equipment. I manage all management processes at the enterprise. If I am suspended for 7 years to serve my sentence under this absurd sentence, then the Pozhmashina company will cease to exist. There is no doubt that this was a custom-made decision,” says Averyanov.
The names of the Chernigov judges who accepted this verdict are Osedach, Zobolotny and Antipets.
What is known about these “guardians of justice”? 53-year-old Nikolai Osedach is not only a judge, but also a military man. He began his career in 1988 as a laboratory assistant in the physics room at the Repkin School. But he soon followed the legal path. First he was an assistant prosecutor of the Repkinsky district prosecutor's office, then a judge of the district court in the town of Repki. And for the last more than 20 years, his place of work has remained unchanged - the Chernigov Court of Appeal.
According to the declarations, over the past two years, in addition to the judge’s salary and pension, Osedach had another income - payments to a military personnel. Moreover, in 2022, he also sued his own employer - that is, the Chernigov Appeal Office - for unaccrued wages during his service in the counterintelligence of the SBU. But that's not all.
“The most absurd thing is that while the judge was probably holding the line in the ranks of the Security Service, his adult sons decided to serve in the battalions... Warsaw, Chicago, Paris, Batumi and Munich,” the investigator notes.
This is confirmed by the corresponding screenshots from the video of the judge’s 27-year-old son.
By the way, Osedach Jr. has already closed his page on social networks, but journalists managed to capture vivid photos of his carefree life. At the same time, there is not a word about the horrors in our homeland on this page. Moreover, judging by social networks, it was in the summer of 2022, that is, already in the midst of a full-scale invasion, that the adult judicial offspring moved to a foreign land.
A logical question arises: how was the son of the Chernigov minister of Themis able to freely leave Ukraine, while the borders for “mere mortals” were already locked? Are he and his 17-year-old brother registered with the military? If not, for what reason were they removed? The Stopkor editors sent these questions to the TCC and the Ministry of Defense, but by the time the story was broadcast, we had not received a response to the request.
Osedach Sr. himself claims that his sons left Ukraine in 2022, but allegedly managed to do this before the outbreak of a full-scale war.
“The sons left before the war, not on February 24, but earlier. The eldest son rents a house, he graduated from a university in Poland at one time, and now works there. The youngest lives and studies there. Didn't they return to register for military service? updated. Everything is within the limits of what Reserve Plus requires,” he notes.
According to Nikolai Osedach’s declaration, his sons rent housing in Poland. Although we have our own real estate in Chernigov. This is an apartment with an area of more than 100 square meters in the very center, of which the judge’s children became the sole owners at the age of 15 and... 6 years old, respectively. And it was there that the parents registered. And a few years later, Osedach Sr. bought another apartment in a neighboring house. Similar houses, according to marketplace data, are sold here for almost 100 thousand dollars.
“That is, the judge’s family owns two elite-class apartments, which are already ready, with furniture, and together can cost up to 10 million UAH,” sums up Alla Martyn.
But this is not all that Judge Osedach has acquired over the years of tireless work.
According to the same declaration, he also has real estate in the suburbs: almost 30 acres of land in the villages of Kamenka and Nedanchichi, 4 hectares of land together with his wife in Stary Yarilovichi and a whole house behind a sauna and its own pond in the same village in the Chernihiv region. There are two eco-houses, gazebos and other amenities.
Meanwhile, neighbors said that the servant of the law is not often seen here. Most often - on weekends.
By the way, this household, like part of the judge’s other property, is also registered in the name of relatives. In particular, half of it has been owned since 2018 by Osedacha’s retired mother, while back in 2015 this garden house with a sauna in Starye Yarilovichi was owned by another person.
The Stopkorovites decided to check where the judge’s mother lives. According to the real estate register, she has a house 30 km from this picturesque estate, in the village of Repki. Compared to the household in Yarilovichi, the parents’ house visually looks much more modest.
Osedach’s colleague, Valentina Antipets, can also be called a connoisseur of comfort and luxury.
The 57-year-old judge has extensive experience. Back in the 1990s, she worked in the Desnyansky District Court. And he has been sitting within the walls of the appeal of the Chernihiv region since 2000.
Unlike Osedach, Valentina can hardly be called a large landowner. But the judge also has several tens of acres in different settlements of the Chernihiv region: in particular, in the villages of Ivankivtsi and Kolychevka. And quite recently, Valentina Antipets decided to build her own country house on one of the plots.
“As we can see from archival satellite images, while something similar to a foundation was floating in space back in 2010, the walls of the building began to be erected no earlier than 2021. Interestingly, according to the judge’s declaration, a house with an area of 60 square meters cost her only 40 thousand hryvnia, while the land turned out to be three times more expensive than the house, according to the documents,” notes the journalist.
The StopCor team decided to check with their own eyes what kind of house this is for today’s thousands of dollars. And behind the fence, media workers recorded a considerable estate even at the construction stage. But we can assume that only the building materials in the yard are more expensive than the stated 40 thousand for the entire house. Antipets herself did not respond to messages and calls from journalists.
And while Valentina Antipets’s country house is still at the stage of construction and renovation, she lives in Chernigov. Here she has a share in her mother’s apartment and her own apartment in a new residential complex on Zhabinsky Street. In this case, the judge was either very lucky again, or she really is an expert in saving, because while apartments in her building are sold for 75, 100 thousand dollars, albeit with renovations, Valentina Antipets was able to purchase real estate here for 711 thousand hryvnia, or that moment 25 thousand dollars.
It seems that the apartment in Chernigov with the best view belongs to another judge from the said trio - Valery Zobolotny.
We are talking about an elite house on the banks of the Strizhen River with equipped recreation areas. It is in this luxury residential complex “Streletskaya Embankment” with picturesque views of the forest and water that the deputy chairman of the Chernigov Court of Appeal, Valery Zobolotny, lives. Five-room apartments here are sold today for 260 thousand dollars or... more than 10 million hryvnia.
To understand, for this money in the Chernihiv region today you can buy a ready-made, fully equipped luxury estate. The judge in the residential complex on the embankment has an apartment, however, only 76 square meters, but it will cost more than one million hryvnia.
“According to the declaration, the judge purchased this luxury property for half a million hryvnia, and tried to recoup the cost of housing through the court, because the state, you see, did not provide him with real estate,” notes Alla Martyn.
As usual, Valery did not answer the journalist’s call.
And the most interesting thing is that Zobolotny, like his colleague Osedach, made it a practice to recoup almost every penny through the courts: for example, a small salary, in their opinion, during the coronavirus pandemic, while according to the law, payments at government jobs were not available exceed 10 minimum wages. Or under-accrued salary during the period of conscription. Or... the flight to Sri Lanka was canceled due to travel restrictions.
Therefore, given the decisions these servants of Themis make, questions arise regarding the legality of the funds and condition of the judges. As before, do such characters even have the right to wear judicial robes?
