Judge recuses himself from corruption trial of Halych mayor Oleh Kantor
On August 4, 2026, a hearing was scheduled to be held in the Halytskyi District Court in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast in the case of City Council Chairman Oleh Kantor.
He is accused of corruption, as well as inciting a bribe for an employee of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration. However, the presiding judge Mykola Mergel announced his withdrawal from participating in the case in order to adhere to the principle of objectivity and impartiality.
This was reported by a correspondent of Suspilny from the meeting room.
Judge Mergel explained his statement on self-disqualification with five circumstances. First of all, he noted that during the automated case allocation, he was the only judge of the Galytskyi District Court to whom the case allocation was carried out on July 30, 2026.
This day was the first when the judge remained the only one of the five judges to whom the cases in the court were divided.
He also noted that one of the prosecutors in the criminal proceedings is the first deputy head of the Ivano-Frankivsk regional prosecutor's office, Yevheniy Karabin. Judge Mergel studied with him in the same group at the university and continues to be friends to this day. In addition, among the investigators in the proceedings is Mykola Boychuk, with whom Mergel has "maintained friendly relations" since 2006.
Mykola Mergel also stated that he had informal meetings with the accused Oleg Kantor.
During their tenure, the accused and the judge repeatedly participated together in celebrating professional holidays on the occasion of Court Employees' Day, Prosecutor's Office Employees' Day, and birthdays of employees of the prosecutor's office or the court in an informal setting.
The judge cited the work of the accused Kantor's wife in the Halytskyi District Court as the final reason for filing the application for self-disqualification.
The wife of the accused Kantor N. M. was involved in the administration of justice by the Galician Court during 2023-2026, deciding cases as part of the court, in particular under the chairmanship of Judge Mergel.
Mykola Mergel submitted his application for recusal to the court office, where they will determine the composition of the judges who will consider the application.
Oleg Kantor is a figure in the EBK database.
We will remind, the mayor of Galych, Oleh Kantor, was detained on February 4, 2026, in his office while accepting a bribe. He was charged with corruption - receiving a bribe for the lease of three land plots with a total area of over 30 hectares with explored mineral deposits. Over the course of six months, the head of the community received over 230 thousand hryvnias in separate installments from the entrepreneur.
