Editor’s note: Every week Kyiv Post journalist Oleg Sukhov picks a winner and loser in Ukraine’s drive to transform itself into a rule-of-law, European-style democracy.
Top five reformers of the week
In June, President Volodymyr Zelensky canceled his predecessor Petro Poroshenko’s appointment of two members of the High Council of Justice, the judiciary’s main governing body, and scheduled a new competition for the jobs. He argued that Poroshenko’s appointments were unlawful and violated competition procedures and a court ban.
Below is a list of reformist candidates for the High Council of Justice jobs taking part in the competition.
1-Larysa Golnyk, Ukraine’s most famous whistleblower judge, was banned on Aug. 5 from the next stage of the competition.
In 2018, the High Qualification Commission of Judges also blocked Golnyk from applying for a job at the High Anti-Corruption Court due to a reprimand issued for a Facebook post she wrote criticizing the authorities. However, she sees the move as revenge for her whistleblowing activities.
In 2015, Golnyk published video footage featuring then-Poltava Mayor Oleksandr Mamai pressuring her to close a case against him and his former deputy, Dmytro Trikhna, and unsuccessfully trying to bribe her in exchange for closing it. They deny accusations of wrongdoing.
“Golnyk was the only candidate whose presence in the High Council of Justice would have meant its readiness for radical change,” Roman Maselko, a lawyer and also a candidate for the council, wrote on Facebook. “She has proven to have not just zero tolerance but also disgust for any manifestations of corruption.”
2-Roman Maselko, who is still running for a High Council of Justice job, is a member of the Public Integrity Council and a lawyer for EuroMaidan Revolution protesters.
He has consistently pushed for efforts to cleanse the judiciary.
3-Roman Bregei, a judge of the Kirovohrad District Administrative Court, is one of Ukraine’s most outspoken and reputable judges.
Bregei has consistently criticized the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges and is seen as independent from the authorities.
In 2018, he said he would file a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights to annul the selection of judges for the Supreme Court.
Bregei argued that the 2017 competition for the Supreme Court had been rigged and conducted with numerous violations – a claim denied by the High Qualification Commission.
4-Viktor Fomin, a judge at Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court, 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 in Poroshenko’s Administration, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office, Iryna Shyba, a legal expert at the DEJURE Foundation think tank, told the Kyiv Post.
The High Council of Justice was considering several disciplinary cases against Fomin in an effort to block him from the competition for the High Anti-Corruption Court under Poroshenko, she added.
5-Pavlo Parkhomenko, a judge at Chernihiv Oblast’s Bakhmach District Court, was one of the few candidates for the Supreme Court with a good reputation.
Yet the High Council of Justice rejected his appointment to the Supreme Court in March without explaining the reasons. The council did not respond to a request for comment.
In January, the DEJURE Foundation awarded the prize of “Honor of the Year 2018” to Parkhomenko. DEJURE said that he had been meticulously protecting human rights while considering cases involving children and teenagers.
Top five anti-reformers of the week
On Aug. 7, President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree to create a commission in charge of judicial reform.
Apart from a few reform-minded experts, the commission includes numerous controversial individuals who face accusations of corruption and other wrongdoing.
Among others, the legal reform commission includes five judges who have been vetoed by the Public Integrity Council because they do not meet integrity and professional ethics standards. The judges have denied accusations of wrongdoing.
However, the High Qualification Commission of Judges has ignored the Public Integrity Council’s vetoes and did not bar them from judicial jobs.
Below is a list of the vetoed judges who became members of Zelensky’s legal reform commission:
1-Bohdan Lvov, a Supreme Court judge, is under investigation in a case in which ex-High Commercial Court Chairman Viktor Tatkov and his deputy Artur Yemelyanov have been charged with issuing unlawful rulings. Lvov has not been officially charged in the case and denies all accusations of wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, in 2016, High Council of Justice member Pavlo Grechkivsky was charged with extorting $500,000 for favorable court rulings with the help of Lvov. Both of them deny the accusations.
Oleg Shklyar, who was arrested with the money, testified that he had been planning to give it to Grechkivsky. The investigators also released a wiretapped phone conversation in which Grechkivsky instructs Shklyar to give him the bribe. However, in 2018, Grechkivsky was acquitted by a court.
Public Integrity Council member Roman Maselko argued that, despite the solid evidence of Grechkivsky’s guilt, the prosecutors had intentionally sabotaged the case by committing procedural violations and failing to catch Grechkivsky red-handed with the bribe.
2-Supreme Court Judge Mykhailo Smokovych canceled the dismissal of judges who unlawfully prosecuted EuroMaidan activists, the Public Integrity Council said. He is also under investigation over unlawful interference in the automatic distribution of cases and has thwarted the investigation, according to the civic watchdog.
3-Supreme Court Judge Stanyslav Kravchenko released senior police officer Oleksiy Pukach from custody, which allowed him to flee in 2003, with Pukach’s lawyer saying that this was done on the orders of then-President Leonid Kuchma. Pukach was later caught and convicted in 2013 of murdering journalist Georgiy Gongadze.
Kravchenko also failed to declare a land plot and a house in 2012 to 2014.
4-Vadym Butenko, a deputy head of the Council of Judges of Ukraine, violated asset declaration rules and his assets do not match his income, according to the Public Integrity Council.
Butenko met Zelensky’s Deputy Chief of Staff Ruslan Riaboshapka in June, when Oleg Tkachuk, then head of the Council of Judges, accused Zelensky’s administration of pressuring the council and initiated a criminal case into the alleged pressure. The Presidential Administration denied the accusations.
Butenko then clashed with Tkachuk and sided with Zelensky’s administration, and the Public Integrity Council concluded that there are doubts about Butenko’s independence.
5-Roman Boyko, a judge of the Kyiv Commercial Court, is a protégé of Artur Yemelyanov, an influential ally of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, according to the Public Integrity Council’s official decision on vetoing the judge. As mentioned above, Yemelyanov is a former deputy head of the High Commercial Court and has been charged with issuing unlawful rulings. Boyko was filmed meeting Yemelyanov in 2018 by the Bihus.info investigative show.
Boyko has issued questionable rulings and violated asset declaration rules, according to the Public Integrity Council. Specifically, Boyko has issued a ruling allowing his own wife to buy a state building in Kharkiv at a below-market value. Later the ruling was canceled by another court as unlawful.
Boyko used to head legal firm Status, which is co-owned by the brother of Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Bohdan.
