Numerous controversial candidates have passed to the next stage of the High-Anti-Corruption Court‘s selection, with some of them topping the list, according to the results of practical examinations announced by the High Qualification Commission of Judges late on Dec. 27.
The practical examinations were held in November. The final stage of the selection of anti-corruption judges, including interviews with candidates, psychological tests and the examination of their profiles, will begin in January.
Starting from Dec. 27, the Public Council of International Experts, a foreign advisory body, has 30 days to assess candidates and decide on vetoing or approving them.
Controversial candidates
Viktoria Zhovnovatyuk, a judge at Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court (formerly known as Kytsyuk), ranked first in the ranking for candidates for non-appellate jobs at the anti-corruption court after the practical examinations.
She gained notoriety when she was arrested by police in 2017 when she was accused of blocking traffic with her car and lashed out at the officers who stopped her, prompting accusations of unethical behavior.
According to the police, Zhovnovatyuk repeatedly called the Prosecutor General’s Office during the incident and refused to submit documents. Zhovnovatyuk said in a response to the Kyiv Post that a court had recognized the police officers’ actions to be unlawful and they had been reprimanded.
In another case, she has been fined for a violation of traffic rules. Zhovnovatyuk, whose car clashed with another one, admitted her guilt, attributing the accident to bad weather. She said that no one had been injured.
Zhovnovatyuk is the former wife of Viktor Kytsyuk, a judge who has been charged with issuing unlawful rulings against activists from the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014. She is the wife of Oleksiy Zhovnovatyuk, an aide to Ruslan Solvar, a lawmaker from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc. Her ties to the Poroshenko Bloc have triggered speculation about Zhovnovatyuk being susceptible to political influence.
Zahovnovatyuk argued in a response to the Kyiv Post that her relatives and acquaintances do not affect her court rulings and she “doesn’t play political games.”
Oleksiy Zhovnovatyuk has been investigated over fraud. The plaintiff who initiated the case has accused Viktoria Zhovnovatyuk of being her husband’s accomplice and of helping to block the case.
She told the Kyiv Post that she could not comment on her husband’s life before their marriage and that she was not aware of the case against him. She said the incident of which her husband is accused had happened before she got acquainted with him.
She has also spoken out against the qualification assessment, or vetting, of all judges and opposed the dismissal of discredited judges appointed by ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Surprisingly for a candidate for an anti-corruption court, Zhovnovatyuk has shared Facebook posts criticizing the court’s creation.
Dmytro Tishko, who ranks third in the ranking of candidates for non-appellate jobs, has been criticized for releasing a Russian-backed separatist from a detention facility, after which the separatist fled and re-joined Russian proxies in the Donbas, Iryna Shyba from the DEJURE legal think-tank told the Kyiv Post. He also leases land to an agribusiness firm formerly co-owned by him and no co-owned by his wife, which can be interpreted as business activities not compatible with a judge’s work, she added.
Ruslan Khytryk also passed to the next stage. In May the High Qualification Commission found Khytryk not worthy of holding a judicial job, and he later resigned. In 2015 the commission recommended firing him for causing a drunk driving accident.
Tishko and Khytryk did not respond to requests for comment.
Three candidates who successfully passed the practical examinations for the anti-corruption court had been previously vetoed by the Public Integrity Council over alleged violations of ethics and integrity standards – Oleh Kimstachyov, Petro Burda and Yuriy Krutiy. They deny the accusations of wrongdoing.
Burda has untrue information in his asset declaration, according to the watchdog. He was fired in 2007 for alleged legal violations, although he was later reinstated.
Meanwhile, Krutiy has banned journalists from court hearings.
Kimstachyov was vetoed because one court case has been unlawfully allocated to him, according to an audit of the State Judicial Administration. The Public Integrity Council also said he had considered another case that he didn’t have a right to consider under the law and that he had been reprimanded for missing a deadline.
Taras Zayets, who ranks sixth among appellate court candidates, is accused of unlawfully trying EuroMaidan activists, while Anatoly Zagorodny and Igor Shtulman have reinstated judges fired for persecuting EuroMaidan activists. They have denied the accusations of wrongdoing.
Lawyer Dmytro Yagunov, who is also running in the competition, used to be an advisor to presidential Deputy Chief of Staff Oleksiy Filatov. Yagunov also has inconsistencies in his asset declaration, according to DEJURE.
Other candidates who passed the exams – Maryan Holovchak, Yevgeny Yangol, Olga Chaikina, Ivan Solovyov, Igor Chaikin, Valeria Chorna, Petro Guivan and Anatoly Kvyatkovsky – do not meet professional ethics and integrity standards, according to the Chesno anti-corruption watchdog.
Clean candidates
Two judges with a reputation for integrity, Viktor Fomin and Natalia Akhtyrska, did not pass to the next stage.
Viktor Fomin, a judge at Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court, has issued dozens of rulings in corruption cases against top officials, including Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov. Due to his rulings, Fomin has made a lot of enemies at the Presidential Administration, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office, Shyba said.
The High Council of Justice has been considering several disciplinary cases against Fomin in an effort to block him from the competition, she said.
Other candidates with a reputation for independence and without a corrupt background, including Roman Bregei, Andriy Maleyev and Markiyan Halabala, got through to the next stage in the competition for the anti-corruption court. However, they rank in the middle or at the bottom of the list, and it’s not clear if they have a chance of being selected as anti-corruption judges.
Manipulations?
The High Qualification Commission of Judges prompted criticism by allowing some candidates who did not get the minimum score for the practical exams to pass to the next stage. The commission argued this complied with its regulations, but ex-Public Integrity Council coordinator Vitaly Tytych said this could be a means of promoting candidates favored by the commission and political loyalists.
The commission did the same thing during last year’s competition for the Supreme Court, and Judge Roman Bregei has disputed the legality of the procedure at the European Court of Human Rights.
Meanwhile, there are accusations that the High Qualification Commission manipulated the Nov. 12 legal knowledge tests for the High Anti-Corruption Court. The commission denied the accusations.
Some of the test questions had more than one correct answer, Tytych, High Qualification Commission member Andriy Kozlov and Judge Mykhailo Slobodin said. Thus the commission had an opportunity to promote some candidates by telling them which answers it deems right, according to Tytych, who participated in the competition but did not pass the tests. The commission refused to give him his test results, which he says proves they were falsified.
