Members of collegial body who receive undue benefit for decision-making, actions within the competence of such body are subjects of criminal offence under Art. 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - SC

The actions of a person who is a member of a collegial body may also be qualified under Art. 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in cases where the decision on the issue for which the unlawful benefit was transferred is made by this collegial body by a joint decision based on the results of voting. Moreover, it does not matter what decision was made by such a collective body (one that was of interest to the provider of the unlawful benefit, or vice versa, i.e. positive or negative). After all, Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine establishes criminal liability for specific acts, including obtaining an unlawful benefit, without specifying the success of achieving the desired result by the provider of the unlawful benefit. Thus, members of a collegial body who receive an unlawful benefit for making decisions or performing actions within the competence of such a body are subjects of the relevant corruption offences.

This was stated by the Criminal Cassation Court of the Supreme Court in its resolution following consideration of cassation appeals filed by the defence, which argued that the chairman of the special investigations commission cannot make decisions independently, as such decisions are made by the commission as a collegial body, and therefore he cannot be held criminally liable under Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The Resolution of the Criminal Cassation Court of the Supreme Court of 23 April 2024 in case No. 726/776/17 (proceedings No. 51-8212км18) ̶ https://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/118689047.

This and other legal positions of the Supreme Court can be found in the Database of Legal Positions of the Supreme Court - https://lpd.court.gov.ua.