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The High Council of Justice on Sept. 29 appointed a total of 111 judges to the new Supreme Court. President Petro Poroshenko has a symbolic right to sign their credentials.
Of the 111 Supreme Court appointees, 25 were vetoed by the Public Integrity Council, a civil society watchdog, because they did not meet professional and ethical standards and are deemed corrupt or dishonest. However, the vetoes were overridden by the High Qualification Commission and ignored by the High Council of Justice.
Apart from these 25, the Public Integrity Council also submitted negative information on about 60 other new Supreme Court judges.
The High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission did not take into account any of the information provided by the Public Integrity Council, Vitaly Tytych, a member of the Public Integrity Council, told the Kyiv Post.
They only agreed with Public Integrity Council vetoes on candidates when those candidates had not been approved by the authorities, he added. But in cases when candidates were politically loyal, they defended them until the end, Tytych said.
“It is a good indicator that highly professional judge Viktoriya Matsedonska, who took a principled stance and spoke out against a ban on EuroMaidan demonstrations under Yanukovych despite heavy pressure, was not appointed,” ex-Public Integrity Council Leonid Maslov wrote on Facebook. “Apparently this was seen as counterproductive – such disloyal judges are not wanted (by the authorities).”
Political cases
New Supreme Court judges Vyacheslav Nastavny and Serhiy Slynko participated in the political persecution of Yuriy Lutsenko, now prosecutor general, and the Pavlychenko family under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Both cases have been recognized as political by Ukrainian and European courts.
Lutsenko was jailed in February 2012 for four years for alleged embezzlement and abuse of office while he was Ukraine’s interior minister. He was released in April 2013 after being pardoned.
Nastavny has also banned journalists from filming court hearings, while Slynko’s revenues do not match his expenses, the Public Integrity Council said.
Corruption scandals
Another newly appointed judge of the Supreme Court is Bohdan Lvov, head of the High Commercial Court. He is reportedly a leading candidate to head the new Supreme Court.
Tytych said that Lvov had falsified the conclusion that ex-High Commercial Court Chief Viktor Tatkov is not subject to lustration under the law on the dismissal of top officials who served Yanukovych. Tatkov was fired under the lustration law in 2016.
Tytych also said that Lvov, who Tytych says was a Tatkov protege, is being investigated for embezzlement during a construction project.
Lvov, whose revenues do not match his expenses, also said he had brought two watches worth worth between $40,000 and $100,000 from abroad but could not explain when he did this or prove that he paid import taxes on them, which could mean that he smuggled them and evaded taxes, Tytych said. He has also failed to declare a house in Zaporizhzhia.
He is also being investigated for the interference in the automatic distribution of cases by Tatkov and his former deputy Artur Yemelyanov, who have been officially charged in a criminal case.
Tatkov, who has fled Ukraine, and Yemelyanov have been accused of spearheading a large-scale corruption and corporate raiding system under Yanukovych. Yemelyanov’s wife has 13 million Swiss francs on accounts in Liechtenstein.
High Council of Justice member Pavlo Grechkivsky used to co-own 7.5 hectares of land with Yemelyanov and was suspected by prosecutors of illegally privatizing it, according to a Radio Liberty investigation.
Lvov is also under investigation in a criminal case against Grechkivsky, who has been charged with fraud but voted for Supreme Court candidates nonetheless, according to the Slidstvo.info investigative show. According to the investigators, Grechkivsky has promised to help in a legal dispute with Lvov’s assistance for $500,000.
Lvov, who denies accusations of wrongdoing, has also been investigated for making an unlawful ruling, and the Supreme Court has ruled that one of Lvov’s rulings violated human rights and involved interference in the automatic distribution of court cases.
He is accused of being close to the political leadership. He has been awarded a gun by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, which was seen as a political favor.
In August he was filmed by Radio Liberty at a birthday party of Valery Heletei, who heads the presidential security guard detachment. Lvov used to work with High Council of Justice Chairman Ihor Benedysyuk, a presidential ally, at the High Commercial Court and at court martials. Benedesyuk has requested to be exempted from voting for Lvov due to a conflict of interest.
During interviews at the High Council of Justice and the High Council of Justice, Lvov behaved as if the issue of his appointment as head of the new Supreme Court had already been decided beforehand behind closed doors, Tytych said. The two judicial bodies showed their bias by asking him positive questions and blocking negative information, he added. They denied the accusations.
Conflict of interest
Another controversial new judge of the Supreme Court is Alla Lesko, a member of the High Council of Justice. The council has exempted her from voting for Supreme Court judges because she participated in the Supreme Court competition.
But Vitaly Tytych, a Public Integrity Council member, said this did not remove a conflict of interest, and she should have suspended or terminated her membership of the High Council of Justice.
She has been accused of being linked to pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk and Yanukovych’s Deputy Chief of Staff Andriy Portnov, who wielded major influence on Ukraine’s lawyer community. Medvedchuk used to be the head of the Ukrainian Lawyers’ Association, and his proteges have held key positions there. Lesko told the Kyiv Post that the accusations were “a mere assumption that does not require refutation.”
Lesko has failed to take measures to punish judges who persecuted EuroMaidan protesters, according to the Public Integrity Council. Lesko has also violated the principles of the adversarial system and transparency during the consideration of their cases by rejecting plaintiffs’ requests to get information on their cases and missing deadlines, the council said.
She has denied not having taken measures to punish judges in political cases and cited confidentiality law and ethical standards as the reason for rejecting plaintiffs’ requests.
Another High Council of Justice member, Alla Oliynyk, was also appointed to the Supreme Court despite a conflict of interest, according to Tytych.
Political influence
Borys Hulko, chairman of the High Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases, was also appointed to the Supreme Court and is a leading candidate to head it. He is accused of having political connections.
In January, Hulko was filmed walking out of the Presidential Administration by Radio Liberty, saying that he had discussed procedural codes.
Hulko’s wife Tetyana Kryzhanivska works at the BIM law firm, which is co-owned by the Ukrainian Lawyers’ Association, which was founded by Medvedchuk. BIM, the Ukrainian Lawyers’ Association and Medvedchuk’s pro-Russian Ukrainian Choice party are registered at the same address. Hulko denies having any ties to Medvedchuk.
Mykhailo Smokovych, acting head of the High Administrative Court, was also appointed to the Supreme Court. He was vetoed by the Public Integrity Council and is known as a judge who closely cooperates with the Presidential Administration, Public Integrity Council member Roman Kuybida told the Kyiv Post.
New Supreme Court judge Yevhen Synelnykov is an assistant to Vladyslav Holub, a lawmaker from the Poroshenko Bloc.
Another Supreme Court appointee, Yan Bernazyuk, has held several jobs under the leadership of ex-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Lawyers Ivan Myshchenko, Vyacheslav Peskov and Anna Vronskaya were also appointed to the Supreme Court. They used to work at the Vasyl Kysyl and Partners law firm, where Poroshenko’s Deputy Chief of Staff Filatov was one of the partners. Filatov denied having links to them, and Vronskaya denied being linked to Filatov, saying she had worked at the firm at a different time.
Meanwhile, new Supreme Court judge Ihor Tkach used to work at Proksen, a firm co-founded and headed by Serhiy Kozyakov, head of the High Qualification Commission. Kostyantyn Krasovsky, head of the Presidential Administration’s legal department, also used to work with Tkach and Kozyakov at Proksen. Tkach’s wife used to be an aide to Serhiy Kivalov, a controversial Yanukovych ally.
Tkach has been vetoed by the Public Integrity Council.
List of Supreme Court appointments:
The Cassation Chamber for Economic Cases
Those appointed: Yehor Krasnov, Serhiy Zhukov, Volodymyr Pohrebniak, Oleksandr Mamaluy, Hanna Vronska, Larysa Rohach, Liliya Katerynchuk, Vyacheslav Peskov, Yuriy Chumak, Valentyna Danyshevska, Ivan Mishchenko, Iryna Bulhakova, Ihor Tkach, Hryhoriy Machulsky, Volodymyr Selyvanenko, Ihor Kushnir, Nina Tkachnko, Bohdan Lvov, Oleksandr Baranets, Valentyna Drobotova, Valeriy Sukhoviy, Volodymyr Studenets, Liudmyla Stratiyenko, Olena Kibenko, Volodymyr Bilous, Svitlana Bakulina, Inna Berdnyk, Kostiantyn Pylkov, Vitaliy Urkevych.
Volodymyr Matiukhin was not appointed.
The Cassation Chamber for Criminal Cases
Those appointed: Nataliya Antoniuk, Serhiy Storozhenko, Svitlana Yakovleva, Vasyl Ohoretsky, Leonid Loboyko, Viktor Ostapuk, Nataliya Bilyk, Mykola Mazur, Alla Makarovets, Nataliya Marchuk, Oleksandr Marchuk, Volodymyr Korol, Stanislav Holubytsky, Valentyna Schepotkina, Volodymyr Brytanchuk, Oleksandr Yemets, Mykola Lahniuk, Stanislav Kravchenko, Vyacheslav Nastavny, Serhiy Slynko, Nadiya Stefaniv, Tetiana Shevchenko, Iryna Hryhoryeva, Vyacheslav Marynych, Oleh Mohylny, Tetiana Matyyek, Arkadiy Bushchenko, Lev Kyshakevych.
Tetiana Frantovska was not appointed. The appointment of Oleksandra Yanovska was postponed.
The Cassation Chamber for Civil Cases
Those appointed: Viktor Strylchuk, Dmytro Hudyma, Serhiy Martev, Viktor Prorok, Svitlana Shtelyk, Alla Lesko, Hryhoriy Usyk, Borys Hulko, Nataliya Antonenko, Yuliya Cherniak, Alla Oliynyk, Viktor Kuznetsov, Svitlana Karpenko, Olena Bilokon, Nataliya Liashchenko, Serhiy Hopta, Oleh Tkachuk, Valentyna Zhuravel, Yevhen Senelnykov, Valentyna Vysotska, Iryna Falovska, Valentyna Kurylo, Vasyl Krat, Dmytro Luspenyk, Maryna Chervynska, Olena Sytnyk.
The appointment of Valentyna Symonenko, Vadym Korotun, Olha Stupak and Sergiy Pogrebny was postponed.
The Cassation Chamber for Administrative Cases
Those appointed: Oleksandr Zolotnykov, Mykola Himon, Tetiana Antsupova, Hanna Buchyk, Nadiya Danylevych, Mykhailo Smokovych, Oleksandr Prokopenko, Rayisa Khanova, Iryna Vasylyeva, Mykhailo Hrytsiv, Vsevolod Kniazev, Liudmyla Byvsheva, Svitlana Pasechnyk, Valentyna Yurchenko, Tetiana Shypulina, Nataliya Kovalenko, Ihor Olender, Iryna Honchrova, Oleh Bilous, Vyacheslav Khokhuliak, Vasyl Sharapa, Larysa Moroz, Yan Bernaziuk, Oleksandr Starodub, Iryna Saprykina, Volodymyr Bevzenko, Iryna Zheltobriukh, Volodymyr Kravchuk.
The appointment of Tetiana Strilets and Viktoriya Matsedonska was postponed.
