The High Anti-Corruption Court on March 17 refused to extend a corruption investigation against Judge Pavlo Vovk, which may lead to the closure of the case.
Judge Andriy Bitsyuk, who made the decision, may have been pressured into it by the High Council of Justice, the judiciary’s highest governing body, according to the Anti-Corruption Action Center.
Hours before Bitsyuk refused to extend the investigation, the High Council of Justice issued a warning to him, accusing Bitsyuk of procedural violations in the Vovk case. Council members have been implicated in Vovk’s alleged corruption schemes, according to audio recordings released by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
The prosecutors will have to either close the investigation or send it to trial within five days in accordance with the law. A Kyiv Post source in law enforcement who spoke on condition of anonymity said the case is unlikely to be sent to trial within five days.
“Bitsyuk’s decision effectively puts an end to the (Vovk case) because currently the results of key forensic assessments are not ready,” DEJURE, a legal think tank, wrote on Facebook.
In July 2020 Vovk, head of the Kyiv District Administrative Court, and its other judges were charged with organized crime, abuse of power, bribery and unlawful interference with government officials. Vovk denies the accusations.
Vovk is seen by civil society as the epitome of judicial corruption and impunity in Ukraine. The country’s law enforcement system, including judges and prosecutors, has consistently blocked the Vovk case.
In the audio recordings published by NABU, Vovk discusses numerous corrupt deals, gives illegal orders and quips that no one should doubt the court’s “political prostitution.” One of the court’s judges was recorded as saying that he supports “any lawlessness in the judiciary.”
In the recordings, Vovk also mentions the involvement of Andrii Ovsiienko, ex-head of the High Council of Justice, as well as other council members in his alleged corruption schemes.
In September, the High Council of Justice unanimously refused to suspend Vovk and other judges implicated in his case.
The council members did not respond to requests for comment.
Cases blocked
A previous case against Vovk, which is separate from the current one, was destroyed in a similar fashion by a judge who refused to extend the investigation.
In August 2019, the Prosecutor General’s Office charged Vovk and other judges of his court with obstruction of justice.
However, in November 2019, Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky Court rejected a motion to extend the obstruction of justice investigation and ordered prosecutors to either close the case or send it to trial within five days. The prosecutors did not send it to trial, and the case was effectively buried.
In July 2020, the NABU resurrected the case by charging Vovk with organized crime, usurpation of power, bribery and unlawful interference with government officials.
The bureau asked Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to authorize an arrest warrant for Vovk for months but she refused.
Responding to accusations of sabotage, Venediktova said on March 17 that she cannot take Vovk to court by force. She added that she doubted the effectiveness of the investigation and said that she did not see any “trial prospects” in the case.
For months, Vovk has ignored the summonses that NABU sent him. The NABU has also obtained court warrants to bring Vovk to bail hearings by force several times but the judge always hid from the bureau.
In August, judge Serhiy Vovk of the Pechersk Court, who is not related to Pavlo Vovk, ordered the case to be transferred from the NABU to another body. Anti-corruption activists interpreted this as an effort to kill the case.
In October, judge Serhiy Vovk also ordered the Prosecutor General’s Office to throw out the charges against Pavlo Vovk because they had been allegedly brought in violation of procedure.
