Reformer of the week – Viktor Fomin
Viktor Fomin, a judge at Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court, on Nov. 12 successfully passed legal knowledge tests for the yet-to-be-created High Anti-Corruption Court.
Fomin has issued dozens of rulings in corruption cases against top officials, including Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov.
Due to his rulings, Fomin has made a lot of enemies at the Presidential Administration, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office, Iryna Shyba, a legal expert at the DEJURE think-tank, told the Kyiv Post.
The High Council of Justice is considering several disciplinary cases against Fomin in an effort to block him from the competition, she added.
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Some other candidates with a reputation for independence and without a corrupt background also got through to the next stage in the competition for the anti-corruption court. These include judges Roman Bregei, Andriy Maleyev and Natalia Akhtyrska and lawyer Markiyan Halabala, according to Shyba.
However, whistleblower judge Larysa Golnyk has been banned from taking part in the competition for the anti-corruption court, in what she sees as revenge for her whistleblowing activities.
Public Integrity Council coordinator Vitaly Tytych, who competed for a job at the Supreme Court but did not pass to the next stage, questioned the validity of the legal knowledge tests for the Supreme Court and the anti-corruption court. He said he had requested his test results from the High Qualification Commission of Judges.
First, the test questions could have had several correct answers or none, in which case the commission could have promoted some candidates by telling them which answers it deems right, he said.
Second, the list of questions was the same as during the Supreme Court competition last year, and some candidates could have won through rote learning without actually understanding the answers, Tytych added.
Third, the tests were not adapted to the level of Supreme Court judges and targeted mechanical knowledge of legal technicalities rather than deep knowledge of jurisprudence, he said.
Fourth, as a result of a change in the minimum score necessary for passing to the next stage, many judges who passed the same tests last year and got appointed to the Supreme Court had worse scores than those of candidates who failed the tests during the current competition, Tytych added.
Anti-reformer of the week – Viktoria Zhovnovatyuk
Viktoria Zhovnovatyuk, a judge at Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court, (surname formerly Kytsyuk), is one of the controversial judges who on Nov. 12 successfully passed legal knowledge tests for the High Anti-Corruption Court.
Zhovnovatyuk ranked first in the ranking for candidates for non-appellate jobs at the anti-corruption court.
She gained notoriety when she was arrested by police in 2017 after she blocked traffic with her car and lashed out at the officers who stopped her, prompting accusations of unethical behavior.
According to the police, Zhovnovatyuk repeatedly called the Prosecutor General’s Office during the incident and refused to submit documents. She argued the arrest was unlawful.
Zhovnovatyuk said in a response to the Kyiv Post that a court had recognized the police officers’ actions to be unlawful and they had been reprimanded.
Zhovnovatyuk is the former wife of Viktor Kytsyuk, a judge who has been charged with issuing unlawful rulings against EuroMaidan activists. Currently she is the wife of Oleksiy Zhovnovatyuk, an aide to Ruslan Solvar, a lawmaker from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc. Her ties to the Poroshenko Bloc have triggered speculation about Zhovnovatyuk being susceptible to political influence.
Zahovnovatyuk argued in a response to the Kyiv Post that her relatives and acquiantances do not affect her court rulings and she “doesn’t play political games.”
Another candidate who passed through the next stage is Tetiana Demchyna, the former wife of Security Service of Ukraine Deputy Chief Pavlo Demchyna. She ranks at the top of the ranking for appellate jobs at the court.
Pavlo Demchyna has been investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine in an unlawful enrichment case. Demchyna, who denies the accusations, has been accused of having ties to Poroshenko’s top allies Ihor Kononenko and Oleksandr Hranovsky, who admitted being acquainted with Demchyna but denied influencing law enforcement.
At least three candidates for the anti-corruption court who successfully passed the legal knowledge tests – Oleh Kimstachyov, Petro Burda and Yuriy Krutiy – have been vetoed by the Public Integrity Council over violations of ethics and integrity standards. They deny accusations of wrongdoing.
