The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine on July 17 brought new charges against some of the country’s most notorious top judges, including Pavlo Vovk.
This is the second attempt to bring the judges to justice. The first attempt was made in August 2019, but was aborted in November 2019 after prosecutors failed to send the case to trial by the legal deadline.
The case involves some of Ukraine’s most controversial and politically influential judges who are accused of obstructing justice and issuing unlawful rulings. The judges deny the accusations of wrongdoing.
Law enforcement has faced accusations of sabotaging the case due to the political connections of Vovk, the head of the Kyiv Administrative District Court.
New charges
NABU said it had charged Vovk, five other judges of his court and Zenovy Kholodnyuk, head of the State Judicial Administration. The bureau said it would elaborate on the charges later.
The judges are Vovk, his deputy Yevhen Ablov, Ihor Pohribnichenko, Ihor Kachur, Bohdan Sanin, Oleksiy Ohurtsov and Volodymyr Keleberda, according to the Kyiv Post’s sources and sources cited by other Ukrainian media.
They were charged with organized crime, usurpation of power, bribery and unlawful interference in the work of the High Qualification Commission of Judges, according to the sources.
The сommission is the judicial governing body that hires, vets and fires judges.
Pressure?
A source familiar with the case, who requested anonymity as he is not allowed to speak with the press, told the Kyiv Post that the charges were authorized by Deputy Prosecutor General Andriy Lyubovich without Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova’s knowledge.
As a result, Lyubovich is now facing pressure from the leadership of the prosecutor’s office, the source said. Specifically, he has been stripped of oversight over cases into murders of protesters during the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution and over the State Investigation Bureau. He was also deprived of the authority to register criminal cases, according to the source.
The Prosecutor General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Previous charges
In August 2019, the Prosecutor General’s Office pressed its first charges against Vovk and two other judges of his court, Yevhen Ablov and Igor Pohribinchenko, as well as against Ivan Shepitko, a judge on Odesa’s Suvorovsky District Court.
The judges were then charged with obstructing the work of the High Qualification Commission of Judges, issuing unlawful rulings and unlawfully interfering in the work of other judges.
In recordings published by NABU, voices alleged to belong to Vovk and other judges discuss arranging fake lawsuits to suspend the authority of High Qualification Commission members and holding fake competitions to replace them.
The recorded voices, including the one believed to be Vovk, also discussed taking bribes for court rulings and the acquisition of expensive jewelry and old coins.
Vovk is also accused of colluding with Kholodnyuk to unlawfully arrange the appointment of a High Qualification Commission member. Kholodnyuk did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the previous summons, the judges have also been investigated for forgery, abuse of power, negligence, bribery and issuing unlawful rulings against protesters during the EuroMaidan Revolution.
Case stalled
In 2019, prosecutors applied to extend the pre-trial investigation period by three months as they waited for forensic experts to examine audio tapes implicating the judges in wrongdoing and question witnesses.
However, Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky Court rejected their motion. On Nov. 7, the court ordered the Prosecutor General’s office to either close the case against the judges or send it to trial within five days.
The prosecutors argued that the ruling was unlawful and absurd. The five-day deadline for sending the case to trial or closing it expired on Nov. 12, and the case has stalled indefinitely since then.
However, the deadline does not apply to the new charges against the judges, and the new case may be sent to trial.
