Reformer of the week: Larysa Golnyk
Whistleblower Larysa Golnyk, a judge of Poltava’s Oktryabrsky District Court, was attacked and beaten by unknown men as she was leaving the court building on Nov. 22.
In 2015 Golnyk published a video featuring Poltava Mayor Oleksandr Mamai and his former deputy Dmytro Trikhna unsuccessfully trying to bribe her.
Golnyk was then suspended and claimed that Oleksandr Strukov, the chairman of the Oktiabrsky Court, was pressuring her and had even assaulted her, which Strukov denies.
A Poltava court is considering a case against Trikhna, but Mamai is merely a witness in the case, and there is no case against Strukov. The trial has seen no progress whatsoever since 2015 — allegedly because of Mamai’s political influence.
Similarly to the Golnyk trial, other investigations are also being sabotaged. High-profile investigations face total collapse due to new procedural code amendments and efforts to destroy the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the in absentia investigations unit at the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Radio Liberty journalist Mykhailo Tkach, and Kharkiv-based anti-corruption activists Dmytro Bulakh and Yevhen Lisichkin have also been attacked and beaten in recent months.
Meanwhile, anti-corruption activists Vitaly Shabunin and Dmytro Sherembei have been investigated in criminal cases in what they see as a crackdown by the authorities on civil society.
The attack on a whistleblower judge also coincides with the appointment of discredited Supreme Court judges.
President Petro Poroshenko on Nov. 10 signed the credentials of 25 new Supreme Court judges who had been vetoed by the Public Integrity Council, which said they obtained ill-gotten wealth, participated in political cases, made unlawful rulings or are under investigation in graft cases. However, the vetoes were ignored by the High Council of Justice.
Three more Supreme Court judges deemed corrupt or dishonest by the Public Integrity Council have also been nominated by the High Council of Justice – Tetiana Strelets, Serhiy Pohribny and Serhiy Slynko. Poroshenko has not signed their credentials yet.
Anti-reformer of the week: Serhiy Knyazev
Ukraine’s National Police, headed by Serhiy Knyazev, on Oct. 21 illegally deported three Georgian associates of ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili without court warrants to their homeland, Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman Valeria Lutkovska said at a news briefing on Nov. 22, citing an official letter that she had received from the State Migration Service. Forced deportation without a court warrant is banned by Ukrainian law.
National Police spokesman Yaroslav Trakalo did not respond to requests for comment, while Interior Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko declined to comment.
Boris Zakharov, a top member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, said that the illegal deportation can be qualified as a crime under the Criminal Code articles on kidnapping and illegal detention, and violates Ukrainian law, the Ukrainian Constitution, and international law.
The State Migration Service has failed to provide any documents on the grounds of the cancellation of the Georgians’ residence permits and their expulsion, Lutkovska said. The State Border Guard also admitted participating in the deportation.
The three Georgians say they were kidnapped in Kyiv, beaten, and then illegally transported to Georgia without a court warrant on a National Guard plane.
National Guard spokesman Vadym Holub told the Kyiv Post that “the National Guard is not involved in issues of deportation,” but refused to say whether National Guard members were present when the deportation of the three Georgians took place on Oct. 21 and whether a National Guard plane had been used.
Lutkovska said that, according to documents she received from state bodies, a non-civilian plane had been used to transport them. That could imply a National Guard plane.
Tzvi Arieli, an acquaintance of one of the Georgians, said on Oct. 24, citing his sources, that the three Georgians had been transported by a National Guard An-74 plane on flight UR84170 from Kyiv’s Zhulyany Airport to Tbilisi. Ukraine’s State Air Navigation Agency confirmed to the Kyiv Post that flight UR84170 left Zhulyany Airport for Tbilisi on Oct. 21.
Arieli said that they had been kidnapped by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the National Guard and the Border Guard, while Saakashvili said the operation had been ordered by the Presidential Administration. The SBU denied participation in the events, while the Presidential Administration declined to comment.
On Nov. 17, four more Saakashvili associates were kidnapped and later deported to Georgia by the SBU, National Police, State Migration Service and State Border Guard in what they say was an illegal operation without due process or any court warrants. Two of them say they were beaten.
The authorities claimed their actions were lawful.
The State Migration Service and Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said on Oct. 24 that Saakashvili and 20 more Georgians could also be deported.
