The Prosecutor General’s Office on Aug. 2 charged top judges of the Kyiv Administrative District Court with obstructing justice.
The scandal around the court has made headlines over the past week as Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko initially appeared reluctant to authorize the charges drafted by investigators, saying there were no sufficient grounds, and was accused of blocking the case. However, he caved in to public pressure and gave the green light on July 30.
The Kyiv Administrative District Court has been mired in controversy and corruption scandals. It is known for highly questionable rulings and its alleged connections to influential politicians.
The charges were brought against Kyiv Administrative District Court Chairman Pavlo Vovk and two judges of the court, Yevhen Ablov and Igor Pogribinchenko, as well as against Ivan Shepitko, a judge of Odesa’s Suvorovsky District Court. They were interrogated by prosecutors on Aug. 2.
The judges have denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
Obstructing justice
All the four judges were charged with obstructing the work of the High Qualification Commission of Judges. Vovk, Pogribichenko and Shepitko were also charged with issuing unlawful rulings, and Vovk and Ablov were charged with unlawfully interfering in the work of other judges.
Specifically, Shepitko is also accused of issuing an unlawful ruling on Vovk’s orders to ban the qualification assessment of judges by the High Qualification Commission.
According to the summonses previously issued for them, the judges have also been investigated over alleged forgery, abuse of power, negligence, bribery and the issuing of unlawful rulings against protesters during the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has also summoned Human Rights Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova and State Judicial Administration Chief Zenovy Kholodnyuk as witnesses in the criminal case against the judges. Denisova and Kholodnyuk must be interrogated on Aug. 7 and Aug. 9, respectively.
According to recordings released by the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Vovk proposed that Denisova appoint High Qualification Commission member Mykola Syrosh in exchange for his court canceling rulings against her by the National Agency for Preventing Corruption. Denisova, who appointed Syrosh in April, did not respond to a request for comment.
Vovk is also accused of colluding with Kholodnyuk to unlawfully arrange the appointment of High Qualification Commission member Serhiy Ostapets by the State Judicial Administration in May. Kholodnyuk did not respond to a request for comment.
Scandalous recordings
The charges against the judges were drafted by Sergii Gorbatuk, head of the in absentia cases unit at the Prosecutor General’s Office, and the NABU and announced on July 26.
According to the recordings they published, voices alleged to belong to Vovk and other judges discuss the arrangement of fake lawsuits to suspend the authority of High Qualification Commission members and holding fake competitions to replace them.
The recorded voices, including Vovk’s, also discussed taking bribes for court rulings and the acquisition of expensive jewelry and old coins.
The Prosecutor General’s Office and NABU also said that Vovk and other judges of his court had illegally interfered in the State Investigation Bureau’s work.
Finally, the recordings provide alleged evidence of Vovk’s links to ex-President Petro Poroshenko, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and former lawmaker Oleksandr Hranovsky, as well as former High Council of Justice Head and current Supreme Court judge Igor Benedysyuk and ex-lawmaker and former Yanukovych ally Serhiy Kivalov.
All had previously denied influencing law enforcement.
