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Tatyana Matyash, the lawyer of Deputy Minister for Temporary Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons Yuriy Hrymchak and his assistant Ihor Ovdienko, who were detained on bribery charges, has said their arrest will be appealed on August 19.

According to her, the defense plans to appeal both rulings of Chernihiv's Desniansky district court.

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As UNIAN reported earlier, Hrymchak and his assistant were detained on Wednesday, August 14, on bribery charges.

The two officials allegedly demanded US$1.1 million from a representative of a legal entity for "exercising influence on decision-making by persons authorized to perform state functions." Hrymchak and his assistant were caught red-handed amid receiving part of the sum in the amount of US$480,000, the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said.

On August 15, Hrymchak and his assistant were notified of suspicion under Part 4 of Article 190 "Fraud Committed on an Especially Large Scale or by an Organized Group" of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. "The individuals by deception took possession of other people's property – money in a particularly large amount," the NABU added.

The crime under the said article is punishable by imprisonment for a term from five to 12 years with confiscation of property.

On August 16, judge of Chernihiv's Desniansky district court Natalia Liamzina ruled to take Hrymchak into custody, setting bail at UAH 6 million ($237,154).

On August 17, Chernihiv's Desniansky district court ruled to take Ihor Ovdienko, Hrymchak's assistant, into custody for two months, setting bail at UAH 4 million ($158,102).