The case against top judges accused of issuing unlawful rulings is stalling as the prosecutor general appears reluctant to charge them.
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s spokeswoman Larysa Sargan on July 29 said that the charges for top judges of the Kyiv Administrative District Court had no factual grounds.
The charges were drafted by Sergii Gorbatuk, head of the in absentia cases unit at the Prosecutor General’s Office, and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and announced on July 26.
Several of the court’s judges are accused of issuing unlawful rulings and illegally interfering in the work of other courts and a top judicial body, the High Qualification Commission of Judges. Gorbatuk and NABU released audio recordings implicating Pavlo Vovk, chairman of the court, and other judges of the court in alleged wrongdoing.
The audio tapes suggest that the judges were discussing issuing fake lawsuits, organizing fake competitions for High Qualification Commission jobs and interfering in other judges’ decisions.
The Kyiv Administrative District Court denied the allegations against its judges. One of the judges, Vovk, called it “a circus.”
It is up to Lutsenko or one of his deputies to sign the notice of suspicion which would formally charge the judges.
As Lutsenko is away on vacation, Gorbatuk and NABU sent the charges for approval to Deputy Prosecutor General Serhiy Kiz, who is the acting prosecutor general during his boss’ absence.
But he’s reluctant to sign it, and so is Lutsenko, according to his spokesperson.
“The notice of suspicion (against the judges) doesn’t have a single piece of evidence or a single file,” Sargan wrote. “So the text is not confirmed by facts. I also emphasize that Gorbatuk’s news briefing is not legal evidence in a criminal case. Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko will consider the case on Thursday (Aug. 1) and make a decision.”
Gorbatuk told the Kyiv Post that draft notices of suspicion usually do not include factual evidence and do not have to include it under the law. He added that such evidence would be presented to Lutsenko or Kiz if they request it.
While on vacation, Lutsenko criticized Gorbatuk on Facebook, saying that in November the Prosecutor General’s Office had been deprived of the authority to initiate new investigations, and “it’s not clear how Gorbatuk was pursuing this case.”
Gorbatuk said previously that the investigation was lawful, saying it started as part of an older case, and currently it is being pursued by the NABU, which has the authority to initiate new investigations.
Lutsenko’s days in the office are numbered as President Volodymyr Zelensky, who took the office in May, is looking to replace him. It is likely to happen when the new parliament, where Zelensky’s party will have a majority, starts working in late August or early September.
Civil society statement
A coalition of civic activists called Nebaiduzhi (Concerned Citizens) made a statement on the charges on July 29.
“Over the past three days, Pavlo Vovk and other suspects could have crossed the border, fled and escaped responsibility,” they said. “For three days everyone has been silent on the issue – including the president, the prosecutor general, who is hiding on vacation, the acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine, the head of the State Investigation Bureau, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and other officials who must immediately react to the documented facts of illegal interference (by Vovk’s court).”
The activists also wondered if the new authorities “had decided to pretend that these recordings don’t exist.”
“Has the Presidential Office decided to bury the case, leave the notices of suspicion unsigned and use the puppet court for its own purposes in the future?” they asked.
Zelensky’s spokeswoman Yulia Mendel did not respond to a request for comment.
The recordings of the Kyiv Administrative District Court judges showed that “the cleansing of the judiciary has not taken place” under ex-President Petro Poroshenko, the activists said.
Nebaiduzhi demanded that the Prosecutor General’s Office authorize the charges for the judges and issue a notice of suspicion for Human Rights Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova, who is implicated in the recordings. They also urged the Verkhovna Rada to fire Denisova.
According to the recordings, 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.
The activists also called on President Volodymyr Zelensky to express his position on the issue, initiate the liquidation of the Kyiv District Administrative Court and initiate a re-launch of the High Qualification Commission of Judges by including civil society representatives in its composition.
Case against top judges
Gorbatuk said in a July 28 interview with Deutsche Welle that the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office was blocking criminal cases against judges of the Kyiv Administrative District Court.
He said that Lutsenko had refused to authorize some of the searches he requested, including searches at the personal offices of the Kyiv Administrative District Court judges. As a result, most of the valuable evidence he hoped to find could have been destroyed, he added.
Lutsenko responded on Facebook that Gorbatuk “was lying.”
Meanwhile, Lutsenko’s deputies Anzhela Stryzhevska and Yuriy Stolyarchuk have refused to authorize more than 10 notices of suspicion for judges who issued allegedly unlawful rulings against demonstrators during the EuroMaidan Revolution, Gorbatuk said.
In the recordings, voices alleged to belong to Vovk and other judges discuss the arrangement of lawsuits by third persons to suspend the authority of High Qualification Commission members and holding fake competitions to replace them.
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.
In the alleged recordings, Vovk also appeared to unlawfully arrange a ruling by Odesa’s Suvorovsky District Court to ban the qualification assessment of judges by the High Qualification Commission.
The recorded voices, including Vovk’s, also discussed taking bribes for court rulings and the acquisition of expensive jewelry and old coins.
