The European Court of Human Rights on July 6 ruled to dismiss a request to waive the immunity of former Ukrainian lawmaker Georgii Logvynsky, which he has as a spouse of the court’s judge.
The request was filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine on March 3. Ukraine’s National Anti-Сorruption Bureau (NABU) accuses Logvynsky of forging documents submitted to the ECHR, costing the state Hr 54 million ($2 million).
Logvynsky enjoys protection from criminal prosecution because his wife is Hanna Yudkivska, an ECHR judge who remains in her seat even though her official tenure ended in June 2019.
The ECHR ruled to dismiss the request since NABU conducted pre-trial investigations — such as covert surveillance — of Logvynsky, despite him being protected by international law.
“The plenary Court considered that such actions of the NABU were incompatible with Logvynsky’s immunity,” the ECHR said in an official statement on July 8.
The ECHR also accused the Anti-Corruption Bureau of witness tampering, which is a criminal offense under Ukrainian law.
“There was evidence suggesting that when conducting the investigative measures targeting Logvynsky the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine resorted to pressuring witnesses,” the official statement reads.
The NABU issued an official statement saying that it had gathered sufficient evidence to charge Logvynsky with a criminal offense. However, the bureau won’t proceed with the charges after the ECHR’s ruling.
But the case won’t be closed since it involves 6 other suspects who don’t enjoy immunity from prosecution. Among them is a former deputy justice minister and the government’s commissioner on ECHR cases.
Golden Mandarin Oil
The NABU believes that Logvynsky, while serving as a lawmaker from the People’s Front party in 2014-19, conspired with government officials to pocket state money owed to him by a private company.
According to the bureau, in 2008, Golden Mandarin Oil, a company affiliated with Logvynsky, bought oil fuel stored in facilities belonging to Kyivenergo, a utility company co-owned by the state and oligarch Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK energy holding. Later, Golden Mandarin requested the fuel from Kyivenergo, but the company said it had no technical capacity to pump it out of storage.
Golden Mandarin sued Kyivenergo in a Ukrainian court to get the fuel. It won, but Kyivenergo once again failed to comply. The company took the case to the ECHR, where Logvynsky’s wife has been a judge since 2010.
In 2013, Golden Mandarin Oil sold Kyivenergo’s debt to another company, which, according to investigators, is also controlled by Logvynsky.
Then, according to the NABU, Logvynsky violated the law.
The investigators suggest that he colluded with Natalia Bernatska, then-deputy justice minister, and Boris Babin, the government’s commissioner on ECHR cases, to resolve the matter. In 2015, Bernatska agreed to a voluntary settlement between the state, which owned 25% of Kyivenergo, and Golden Mandarin Oil.
The ECHR approved the settlement and the state paid Logvynsky’s company Hr 54 million.
The investigators deemed that deal an unnecessary concession by state officials and a result of a collusion. In January, Bernatska and Babin were charged with embezzlement.
All suspects deny their guilt.
After the ECHR ruling, Logvynsky wrote on Facebook that the court had ruled in favor of justice. He also mentioned that the ECHR acknowledged witness tampering by the Anti-Corruption Bureau and demanded criminal punishment for those involved.
“Law enforcement officers (should) face up to 15 years in prison for these actions. I hope that, as the Prosecutor General and the President promised, they will not protect (those involved),” wrote Logvynsky.
Eternal judge
In a statement, NABU said that “attempts to prosecute close relatives of ECHR judges are rare. Such a practice did not exist in Ukraine at all.” The problem is that Logvynsky didn’t have to have immunity in the first place.
Logvynsky’s wife, whose immunity covers him, was set to retire in June 2019 after serving her 9-year term as an ECHR judge. Yet, for nearly two years, Ukraine has failed to choose Yudkivska’s replacement, allowing her to remain in her post indefinitely.
And Logvynsky is helping his wife to remain at her post. Candidates for her job and members of the election commission told the Kyiv Post that Logvynsky influenced the process.
Read More: Hiding behind his wife? Ex-MP Georgii Logvynsky married well, escapes prosecution
While serving as a Ukrainian lawmaker, Logvynsky was chosen to be part of the country’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and served as the head of the assembly’s judiciary committee and later as the assembly’s vice president.
In June 2019, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a competition to select the next Ukrainian representative in the ECHR.
According to the law, Ukraine was to choose three candidates as Yudkivska’s replacement and PACE was to choose the eventual winner.
Mykhailo Buromensky, head of the commission tasked with choosing three candidates, told the Kyiv Post that the competition has stalled. Back in February, the three candidates were chosen and forwarded to PACE, where two of the candidates were vetoed by the Advisory Panel of the Council of Europe.
Among them was Pavel Pushkar, who had worked for the Council of Europe for 18 years, heading various departments.
The decision of the advisory panel isn’t permanent, and Ukraine had two options – to proceed with the three candidates chosen by the commission or to hold a new competition – according to Buromensky, it chose neither.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” says Buromensky. “The commission was dissolved, a new competition wasn’t issued.”
Concerning the ECHR ruling, the court decided not to look into the information gathered by NABU, stating that any proof of guilt gathered illegally cannot be used in court.
Instead, the court took into account the submissions on behalf of Logvynsky opposing the waiving of his immunity. The primary document was issued by his wife Yudkivska.
