---
title: "Three years on the run from prison: NABU tracks down bribery judge"
description: "NABU and SAP have tracked down former Dnipro judge Andriy Leonov, who spent three years hiding from prison for bribery. The fugitive disguised himself as a police officer but is now in custody."
date: 2026-09-29T17:46:00.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/nabu-tracks-down-bribery-judge
tags: [nabu, sap, corruption, court, ukraine, dnipro]
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# Three years on the run from prison: NABU tracks down bribery judge

![Detention of a bribery judge by NABU officers](https://xab.info/media/2026/09/29/nabu-razyskalo-sudyu-vzyatochnika/nabu-razyskalo-sudyu-vzyatochnika-1.webp)

## 🎯 Key Points

- Former Dnipro judge Andriy Leonov hid from justice for over three years.
- In 2018, he was caught extorting a $30,000 bribe.
- The ex-judge disguised himself as a police officer before being detained and placed in a pre-trial detention center.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) have completed a multi-year search for a former judge. The defendant in a high-profile corruption case had been hiding from law enforcement agencies for more than three years, using various methods of conspiracy and camouflage, including disguising himself as a police officer.

### Chronicle of the crime and exposure

The story began in May 2018, when Andriy Leonov, a judge of the Babushkinsky District Court of Dnipro, was caught red-handed. According to the investigation, he extorted a bribe of 30,000 US dollars and managed to receive part of this amount. For a financial reward, the judge promised to make a procedural decision in the interests of a farm, recognizing it as an injured party in a case of raiding and document forgery, and to issue a sentence not related to actual imprisonment.

### Attempts to escape justice

Despite the severity of the charges and the trial proceedings, Leonov chose the tactic of fleeing. He ignored the sentencing hearing and the subsequent consideration of the case in the appellate court. As a result, in June 2023, the fugitive ex-judge was officially put on the wanted list. As it turned out during operational measures, he carefully hid, changed places of residence, and even tried to camouflage himself as a law enforcement officer.

### Detention and next steps

Currently, the lengthy search is over: the detained former judge has been taken to a pre-trial detention center to serve the sentence imposed by the court. This high-profile case demonstrates the inevitability of punishment for corrupt officials in robes, despite long attempts to evade responsibility through flight and conspiracy.

## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification

- [Три года в бегах от тюрьмы: НАБУ разыскало судью-взяточника](https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/tri-roki-bigah-vid-v-yaznitsi-nabu-rozshukalo-1790703657.html) - Официальное сообщение НАБУ о поимке экс-судьи Андрея Леонова, скрывавшегося с 2023 года.

## ❓ FAQ

### Q: Who did NABU track down?
**A:** NABU and SAP tracked down Andriy Leonov, a former judge of the Babushkinsky District Court of Dnipro.

### Q: What was the ex-judge convicted for?
**A:** He was exposed in 2018 for extorting and receiving part of a $30,000 bribe for a lenient sentence in a raiding case.

### Q: How long was he on the run?
**A:** The former judge hid from law enforcement for more than three years, having been put on the wanted list in June 2023.