UK politician sentenced to over 10 years in jail for accepting bribes to make pro-Russia statements

LONDON (AP) — A hard-right British politician was sentenced Friday to ten and a half years in prison for accepting bribes to make favorable statements about Russia in the European Parliament.

Nathan Gill, 52, pleaded guilty earlier this year to eight counts of bribery between December 2018 and July 2019.

Prosecutors said Gill, a former member of the European Union legislature who also led the Reform U.K. party in Wales, was tasked by former Ukrainian politician Oleg Voloshyn to make statements in return for money.

At his sentencing hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court, which is better known as the Old Bailey, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said Gill had accepted money in “exchange for the improper execution of (his) public duties.” She said he had “advanced narratives advantageous to Russian interests concerning Ukraine.”

Gill was stopped at Manchester Airport in September 2021 under British counterterrorism laws, and after an investigation was charged in February this year.

Gill was elected to the European Parliament in 2014 for the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party, and later represented the Brexit Party. He remained in the legislature until Britain left the European Union in 2020.

He led the Welsh branch of the Brexit Party’s successor Reform U.K. during 2021 elections in Wales but is no longer a member, the party said.