Reformer of the week – Roman Brehei
Roman Brehei, a judge of the Kirovohrad District Administrative Court, is one of Ukraine’s few whistleblower judges who has exposed the judiciary’s flaws and called for making the ongoing appointment of a new Supreme Court more transparent.
Brehei has criticized the High Qualification Commission for allowing 299 candidates with insufficient scores take part in the competition — a move that appears to promote judges favored by the authorities. He urged the High Council of Justice not to appoint 69 of these candidates who passed to the latest stage.
Brehei has also lambasted the High Council of Justice for rejecting 48 out of 52 requests by council members to exempt themselves from voting for specific candidates due to conflicts of interest. This triggered accusations of political influence on the council, which are denied by this body.
One of the council members who will vote for Supreme Court judges, Pavlo Grechkivsky, has been charged in a fraud case for allegedly taking a $500,000 bribe to influence a court decision.
In July, the High Qualification Commission selected 120 judges of the new Supreme Court who have yet to be approved by the High Council of Justice. As many as 25 percent of the 120 nominees deemed dishonest or corrupt were vetoed by the advisory Public Integrity Council, but the commission overrode the vetoes.
The European Union and U. S. Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch have urged the council not to appoint discredited candidates.
Anti-reformer of the week – Yaroslav Romanyuk
Yaroslav Romanyuk, chairman of the discredited Supreme Court and a member of the High Council of Justice, may have a decisive vote during the appointment of politically loyal candidates to the new Supreme Court by the council starting from Sept. 14, Roman Brehei, a judge of the Kirovohrad District Administrative Court, said on Facebook on Sept. 14.
The High Council of Justice on Sept. 13 rejected Romanyuk’s request to exempt himself from voting for new Supreme Court judges due to a conflict of interest: the fact that he participated in the Supreme Court competition himself, although he later withdrew his candidacy.
Brehei, himself a former participant of the competition, interpreted this as an attempt to make sure that there is a politically loyal majority at the High Council of Justice.
The High Council of Justice needs 14 votes to appoint judges of the new Supreme Court. Brehei argued that the authorities do not trust reformist High Council of Justice members Andriy Boiko, Anatoly Myroshnychenko and Mykola Husak and need Romanyuk as the 14th loyalist vote.
In two similar cases, council members Alla Lesko and Alla Oliynyk have been exempted by the High Council of Justice from voting for Supreme Court candidates because they took part in the competition.
Romanyuk backed ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s “dictatorial laws” of January 16, 2014, which cracked down on civil liberties. In 2008 Romanyuk took part in the Bochan vs Ukraine case, which has been recognized by the European Court of Human Rights as lawless and “a denial of justice.” Romanyuk denies accusations of making unlawful decisions.
During the competition, Romanyuk was vetoed by the Public Integrity Council due to what they see as evidence of legal violations and a lack of integrity.
