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New Odessa police chief detained for bribery — chief prosecutor

Oleg Makukha was appointed the head of the Odessa city police department on July 1, 2015 on recommendation from regional police chief Georgy Lortkipanidze

© Andrey Malinovsky/TASS

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ODESSA, August 27 /TASS/. Odessa’s new police Chief Oleg Makukha was detained on Thursday for extorting a $20,000 bribe for illegal assistance in the solution of a corporate conflict, the press service of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said on Thursday.

"The Odessa police chief was caught red-handed when receiving a graft worth $20,000" the press service said.

Makukha was appointed the head of the Odessa city police department on July 1, 2015 on recommendation from regional police chief Georgy Lortkipanidze, who in turn had received an invitation from Odessa’s Governor Mikheil Saakashvili to come to work in Odessa. Prior to his new appointment, Makukha had headed the anti-organized crime department of Ukraine’s Nikolayev region.

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