After being without a chairman for nearly a year, Ukraine’s Constitutional Court on Feb. 21 elected Stanislav Shevchuk as its leader.
Shevchuk was an ad hoc judge of the European Court of Human Rights in 2009 to 2012. He became a member of Ukraine’s Constitutional Court in 2014.
He was a professor at the private Solomon University in 2004 to 2009 and at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy in 2009. Lawmaker Oleksandr Hranovsky, a top ally of President Petro Poroshenko believed to be in charge of legal affairs, graduated from the Solomon University.
The Constitutional Court had been unable to elect a chairman since the authority of previous head, Yuriy Baulin, expired in March 2017. After that, Viktor Kryvenko became its acting head.
The Constitutional Court’s work has been paralyzed for more than a year due to a lack of a quorum, with the court failing to elect a chairman and adopt regulations to function under the new Constitutional Court law passed in July.
As a result of the blockage, the Constitutional Court has so far failed to consider two bills on lifting lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution, the law on the lustration of top officials who served ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and other laws.
In December a competition commission nominated six Constitutional Court candidates, out of which Poroshenko must appoint two. One of them is Anzhelika Krusyan, a controversial associate of Serhiy Kivalov – an ex-ally of Yanukovych.
In November the Congress of Judges also appointed to the Constitutional Court Viktor Horodovenko. Judge Ihor Ushaty has accused him of extorting money from him in exchange for an appointment, and has initiated criminal cases into the accusations, which are denied by Horodovenko. Horodovenko acquired the right to use a Pajero Wagon car in 2010 but failed to declare it in his 2013 and 2014 asset declarations, according to the Reanimation Package of Reforms, a civil society watchdog.
The appointments were made under a controversial law passed in July.
The law has been criticized because it allows the president, parliament and the Congress of Judges to hold non-transparent competitions to pick candidates in an arbitrary way, without independent civic oversight. Critics say that the law will allow Poroshenko and his parliamentary majority to fully control the Constitutional Court.
Meanwhile, three incumbent judges of the Constitutional Court – Mykhailo Hultai, Mykhailo Zaporozhets and Natalia Shaptala – and several ex-judges of the court are under investigation in an usurpation of power case against Yanukovych. They are accused of adopting several decisions that enabled Yanukovych to monopolize power.
According to records in Yanukovych’s Party of Regions’ alleged off-the-book ledger, judges from the Constitutional Court received $6 million from the Party of Regions for making rulings that helped Yanukovych usurp power.
Despite charges having been made against Yanukovych, there are still no formal charges against the Constitutional Court judges accused of helping Yanukovych usurp power. The Prosecutor General’s Office has been accused of covering up for the judges for political reasons.
In 2014, the Verkhovna Rada fired five Constitutional Court judges for violating their oath by letting Yanukovych monopolize power. Lawmakers urged the president and the Congress of Judges to fire the remaining judges implicated in the case as well.
However, Poroshenko and the congress have not done so.
In another controversial development, Poroshenko on Nov. 10 appointed to the Supreme Court 25 judges who have ill-gotten wealth, participated in political cases, made unlawful rulings or are under investigation in graft cases, according to the Public Integrity Council.
