The Reformer of the week – Public Integrity Council
The Public Integrity Council, the judiciary’s civil society watchdog, has consistently fought against the appointment and promotion of tainted and corrupt judges by the judiciary’s governing bodies.
Members of the council, including Mykhailo Zhernakov and Halia Chyzhyk, on Aug. 20 lambasted the High Council of Justice’s refusal to suspend several judges who face the charges of obstructing justice, including Pavlo Vovk, ex-head of the Kyiv Administrative District Court.
Roman Maselko, another member of the Public Integrity Council, said that Vovk’s court had previously served ex-President Petro Poroshenko and is now trying to show its loyalty to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration.
“I thought that Poroshenko’s example demonstrated to the new government that puppet judges are an absolute evil,” he added. “But worrying signals make me doubt that (the new authorities) have learned that lesson.”
Under Poroshenko, the Public Integrity Council vetoed 44 Supreme Court candidates who made it to the latest round because they do not meet integrity and professional ethics standards. However, the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges ignored the vetoes and appointed them to the Supreme Court, discrediting judicial reform.
The Public Integrity Council has also lambasted the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission for their arbitrary methodology, which allowed them to appoint judges without providing any justifications. The High Qualification Commission and the High Council of Justice have denied accusations of wrongdoing.
Anti-reformer of the week – High Council of Justice
The High Council of Justice on Aug. 20 refused to suspend top judges who face charges of obstructing justice and issuing unlawful rulings. The council did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
One of the judges, Pavlo Vovk, said he had resigned as head of the Kyiv District Administrative Court but he will remain a judge of the court and will be able to consider cases. The council also refused to suspend Igor Pogribinchenko, a judge of the Kyiv Administrative District Court, and Ivan Shepitko, a judge of Odesa’s Suvorovsky District Court. They have also been charged with obstructing justice in the Vovk case.
The High Council of Justice’s decision has been lambasted by anti-corruption watchdogs since audio tapes released by investigators show the judges discussing the issuing of unlawful rulings and other criminal schemes. They deny the accusations of wrongdoing.
Roman Ratushny, the founder of a group that fights illegal construction in Kyiv’s Protasiv Yar neighborhood, said on Facebook that members of his group had seen High Council of Justice members Volodymyr Hovorukha and Andriy Ovsienko enter the Presidential Office on the eve of the council’s decision on Vovk. He said that, according to his information, the council members discussed keeping Vovk on his job with President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Bohdan.
The High Council of Justice told the Slidstvo.info investigative journalism project that Hovorukha and Ovsienko had visited the Presidential Office to discuss judicial reform.
Oleg Prudyvus, a member of the High Council of Justice, has been recorded by investigators as discussing alleged criminal schemes with Vovk. Another member of the council, Mykola Khudyk, also features in the recordings.
Recordings implicating Vovk also involve links between Poroshenko and Igor Benedysyuk, ex-head of the High Council of Justice.
The High Council of Justice on Aug. 22 also refused to allow the arrest of Viktor Tatkov, former head of the High Commercial Court. Tatkov has been charged with organizing the issuance of unlawful rulings and denies the accusations. Tatkov and his deputy Artur Yemelyanov are accused of having run one of the largest corruption and corporate raiding schemes under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
One of the members of the High Council of Justice, Pavlo Grechkivsky, was charged in 2016 with extorting a $500,000 for favorable court rulings with the help of Bohdan Lvov, now the deputy head of the Supreme Court. Both of them deny the accusations. Another member of the council, Oleksiy Malovatsky, was delegated by ex-President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc to the council and worked as a lawyer for Poroshenko in 2014.
Svitlana Shelest, who is also a member of the council, has received a $1 million apartment as a “gift,” according to the property register.
Meanwhile, top investigator Sergii Gorbatuk said in a recent interview that the High Council of Justice had threatened judges who had authorized searches at other courts in 2017.
Ruslan Riaboshapka, Zelensky’s deputy chief of staff and the top candidate for the job of prosecutor general, said on Aug. 7 that the Verkhovna Rada may pass legislation to re-launch and replace the discredited High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges on the first day of its work. The Rada is expected to convene in late August or early September.
However, members of the Public Integrity Council, the judiciary’s civil society watchdog, warn that the current High Council of Justice members should be replaced through a transparent procedure with members trusted by civil society, not with shady proteges of Bohdan or other government officials or with tainted judges.
