The High Council of Justice on Aug. 20 refused to suspend a top judge who faces charges of obstructing justice and issuing unlawful rulings.
The judge, Pavlo Vovk, said he had resigned as head of the Kyiv District Administrative Court but he will remain a judge of the court and will be able to consider cases.
The High Council of Justice’s decision has been lambasted by anti-corruption watchdogs since audio tapes released by investigators show him discussing the issuing of unlawful rulings and other criminal schemes. He denies the accusations of wrongdoing.
Vovk is allegedly trying to curry favor with the new authorities. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Bohdan has been accused of allying himself with Vovk and preventing him from losing his job.
Bohdan and the Presidential Office did not respond to requests for comment.
The council also refused to suspend Igor Pogribinchenko, a judge of the Kyiv Administrative District Court, and Ivan Shepitko, a judge of Odesa’s Suvorovsky District Court. They have also been charged with obstructing justice in the Vovk case.
Vovk was replaced as the court’s chairman with Volodymyr Keleberda, who has been recorded by investigators as discussing alleged criminal schemes with Vovk. Keleberda has denied the accusations of wrongdoing.
Oleg Prudyvus, a member of the High Council of Justice, has been recorded by investigators as discussing alleged criminal schemes with Vovk. Another member of the council, Mykola Khudyk, also features in the recordings. The council said it could not comment immediately.
Kateryna Butko, an activist from the AutoMaidan anti-corruption watchdog, said the council’s decision highlighted the need to reform and replace the High Council of Justice. Under Poroshenko, the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges were lambasted for appointing tainted judges and for their arbitrary methodology, which allowed them to appoint judges without providing any justifications. The High Qualification Commission and the High Council of Justice have denied accusations of wrongdoing.
Bohdan’s influence?
Roman Ratushny, the founder of a group that fights illegal construction in Kyiv’s Protasiv Yar neighborhood, said on Facebook that members of his group had seen High Council of Justice members Volodymyr Hovorukha and Andriy Ovsienko enter the Presidential Office on the eve of the council’s decision on Vovk on Aug. 19. He said that, according to his information, the council members discussed keeping Vovk on his job with Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Bohdan.
One other source also confirmed to the Kyiv Post that they visited the Presidential Office and discussed keeping Vovk with Bohdan.
Vovk’s court has issued several rulings in favor of billionaire oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, whom Bohdan had previously served as a lawyer. In April the court canceled the nationalization of Kolomoisky’s PrivatBank and ruled in favor of Triantal Investment Ltd, a firm co-owned by Kolomoisky.
Kolomoisky is a former business partner to Zelensky, and has been suspected of backing the political campaign of his former partner. Both of them deny being political allies.
There could be another link between Bohdan and Vovk.
In an Aug. 19 interview with journalist Dmytro Gordon, Vovk praised ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Andriy Portnov and called him a “mega-boss.” Bohdan, who used to be an assistant to Portnov, has called Portnov his friend.
Zelensky’s administration has refused to comment on the Vovk scandal since it broke on July 26.
Poroshenko’s influence
Vovk also said in the interview with Gordon that ex-President Petro Poroshenko had tried to pressure judges, threatened them and tried to fire them during his presidency. Poroshenko has previously denied influencing law enforcement, and his spokesman Sviatoslav Tsegolko did not respond to a request for comment.
Vovk said in the interview that Poroshenko and his inner circle had repeatedly met with him and tried to impose certain decisions on him.
According to recordings released by investigators, Vovk had discussed keeping Zenovy Kholodnyuk, head of the State Judicial Administration, in his job with Oleksandr Hranovsky, an ex-lawmaker who was accused of influencing law enforcement under Poroshenko. In the recording, Vovk said that Hranovsky had talked to Poroshenko, who said that Kholodnyuk must remain on his job.
In 2016 Vovk was also filmed by Radio Liberty meeting with Hranovsky, who has also denied influencing law enforcement.
Always subservient?
“Vovk’s court has always been subservient to the authorities,” Roman Maselko, a member of the Public Integrity Council – the judiciary’s civil society watchdog – wrote on Facebook. “The court did its best to serve Poroshenko, and the NABU recordings show that it was mutual: Poroshenko also heard Vovk’s wishes. But as soon as the courts saw that Poroshenko was losing power, they re-oriented themselves.”
He argued that currently courts are trying to show their loyalty to Zelensky’s administration.
“I thought that Poroshenko’s example demonstrated to the new government that puppet judges are an absolute evil,” he added. “But worrying signals make me doubt that (the new authorities) have learned that lesson.”
Charges against Vovk
The Prosecutor General’s Office on Aug. 2 charged 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. 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.
The judges have denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
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, which deposed Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.
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.
