Reformer of the week: Natali Sokolenko
Natali Sokolenko, a member of the Public Integrity Council, on Aug. 1 urged the High Council of Justice and President Petro Poroshenko not to appoint Supreme Court judges deemed to be corrupt or dishonest.
On July 28, the High Qualification Commission chose 120 judges of the new Supreme Court that have yet to be approved by the High Council of Justice. Poroshenko has a symbolic right to appoint them.
As many as 25 percent of the new Supreme Court’s nominated 120 judges have been vetoed by the Public Integrity Council, a civil society watchdog, because of alleged evidence of corruption and dishonesty. The vetoes have been overriden by the High Qualification Commission.
The final list was even worse than the percentage during the previous stage: 23.8 percent of the 319 candidates had been deemed dishonest by the Public Integrity Council.
The U. S. embassy criticized the competition on July 31, saying that “integrity concerns of many nominees remained.”
Civic activists argue that the long-awaited renewal of the Supreme Court did not take place: 46 percent of the 120 nominees are incumbent judges of the Supreme Court and higher specialized courts, which are being merged into the new Supreme Court. Moreover, 77.5 percent of the nominees had been judges within Ukraine’s corrupt and politicized judiciary before.
Oleksandr Hranovsky, a top ally of Poroshenko, also prompted criticism when he said on July 30 that he was “overjoyed” over the results of the Supreme Court competition. This was seen by critics as another proof of Hranovsky’s alleged influence over the judicial system and his alleged interference in the competition, which he denies.
Anti-reformer of the week: Vadym Troyan
The house of Deputy Interior Minister Vadym Troyan was searched on July 28 as part of a graft case, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the State Security Service said.
The UNN news agency published a photo in which Troyan surrounded by law enforcers is writing something, and a supposed bag with cash lies on a desk. Troyan claimed the photo had been taken when a thief had broken into his house two weeks ago — an account that contradicted the prosecutors’ words and UNN’s claim.
The SBU and prosecutors subsequently said that three associates of Troyan had been arrested for extorting a Hr 1.5 million ($58,000) bribe, while he had nothing to do with the bribery. The statement was seen by Troyan’s critics as an effort to let him escape punishment.
Some analysts saw the searches at Troyan’s case as Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s revenge for Troyan’s decision to open a criminal case linked to Svitlana Ryzhenko, the accountant and business partner of Lutsenko’s wife who lives in a village. She used to own eight luxury apartments in downtown Kyiv that are leased out by Lutsenko’s son Oleksandr, as well as a $1 million apartment in Russian-annexed Crimea, according to an investigation by the Nashi Hroshi anti-corruption watchdog.
The Prosecutor General’s Office on Aug. 1 closed a case against People’s Front party lawmaker Serhiy Pashynsky over him shooting at a drunk man last year, also prompting accusations that it is letting him get away with it.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on July 19 appointed Vyacheslav Abroskin as first deputy chief of the National Police. According to an alleged SBU document published in March by Anton Shevtsov, an ex-police chief and a suspect in a treason case, Shevstov has received intelligence information from Abroskin in the interests of Crimean separatist Sergei Aksyonov — charges that Abroskin denies.
Another close ally of Avakov, the Interior Ministry’s State Secretary Oleksiy Takhtai, is a member of the commission that stripped ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship on July 26.
A person who resembles Takhtai features in video footage of negotiations on a corrupt deal at the Interior Ministry leaked in 2015, although he denies the accusations.
Another blow to the police’s image came as lawyer Yevhenia Zakrevska said on July 26 that two more ex-Berkut riot police officers charged with killing EuroMaidan activists and attacking journalists had fled Ukraine.
In April four other Berkut riot police officers charged with murder, torture and assault fled to Russia after courts in Kyiv ruled that they could be released from custody.
