The Verkhovna Rada failed last week to fire judges implicated in corruption and those who made unlawful rulings. Lawmakers appear likely, moreover, to miss the Sept. 30 deadline for removing the judges.
Parliament is not scheduled to meet this week and is unlikely to use this opportunity to cleanse the judicial system.
The Reanimation Package of Reforms on Sept. 24 urged the Verkhovna Rada to hold an emergency session to consider the issue by Sept. 30, when the judicial reform law passed in July will come into effect. The group said parliament’s inaction effectively “negates judicial reform.”
Yanukovych’s judges
The Verkhovna Rada has been dragging its feet for two years on firing 778 judges whose five-year terms have already expired. Most of these judges were appointed by fugitive former President Viktor Yanukovych, and some of them have been accused of corruption.
One of the 778 judges is Viktor Kitsyuk, who is on trial on charges of unlawfully prosecuting EuroMaidan activists and also took part in political cases against Batkyvshchyna party leader Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko, who is now prosecutor general.
If some or all of them are fired, competitions will be held for their jobs, which will provide an opportunity for renewing the court system.
Chesno, Transparency International, the Reanimation Package of Reforms and other civil society groups said in a statement on Sept. 19 that President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc was blocking the dismissal of these judges. Poroshenko’s spokesman Sviatoslav Tsegolko did not reply to a request for comment.
“Society doesn’t trust judges appointed by Yanukovych,” they said. “These judges, who got their jobs in a non-transparent way, were not selected in an honest competition and symbolize the old corrupt judicial system that needs to be cleansed.”
Voting on the issue is being blocked by the legal policy and justice committee, which is headed by Ruslan Knyazevych, a lawmaker from the Poroshenko Bloc, the groups said. Knyazevych did not reply to a request for comment.
Poroshenko’s supporters have argued that it made no sense to fire those judges because the judicial system was understaffed.
Roman Maselko, a lawyer for the AutoMaidan car-based protest group and an expert on judicial reform, accused them of manipulation, saying that the Poroshenko Bloc had first promised to fire the judges and hold transparent competitions for their jobs and then backtracked on this pledge.
By keeping those judges, the authorities may be trying to “keep their influence on the juducial system” because it’s easier to influence judges on which they have compromising materials, Maselko told the Kyiv Post.
After Sept. 30, the High Council of Justice will instead decide whether to fire or appoint the 778 judges for life.
“The issue is how it will vet them and whether it will want to do that,” Maselko said.
He argued that the High Council of Justice, which is seen as highly dependent on Poroshenko, had not shown a genuine desire to cleanse the judicial system in the past and failed to dismiss many controversial judges.
The council’s image was further dented on Sept. 21, when prosecutors accused Pavlo Grechkivsky, a member of the council and reportedly an ally of Poroshenko’s grey cardinals Ihor Kononenko and Oleksandr Hranovsky, of extorting a $500,000 bribe.
Meanwhile, Poroshenko on Sept. 24 appointed 104 judges for 5-year terms just a week before his authority to unilaterally appoint judges expires on Sept. 30. The decision was also controversial because those judges were not selected in a transparent competition, while new judges after Sept. 30 will have to be.
Maidan judges
Parliament also failed to fire 20 judges who made unlawful rulings during the EuroMaidan Revolution.
The High Council of Justice has recommended dismissing the judges but the Verkhovna Rada has been delaying a decision on them for 10 months. Sasha Drik, head of the Civic Lustration Committee, told the Kyiv Post earlier the decision was being blocked by Knyazevych.
When the judicial reform law comes into effect on Sept. 30, the procedure for firing judges will change, and parliament will also lose its right to dismiss or appoint judges. As a result, it could be impossible to fire the 20 judges after Sept. 30.
Parliament has not yet fired a single one out of the about 330 judges who made unlawful rulings, while President Petro Poroshenko has so far fired 10 of them.
Earlier this month the High Council of Justice recommended firing Oksana Tsarevich, a controversial judge of Kyiv’s Pechersk Court, but Poroshenko has not dismissed her yet. She will likely escape dismissal if Poroshenko fails to do that by Sept. 30.
Poroshenko has also been dragging his feet on firing two judges of the Constitutional Court for more than two years despite the fact that both parliament and the Supreme Court have recognized that they violated the law by helping Yanukovych usurp power. Constitutional Court judges are being investigated by the Prosecutor General’s Office and were allegedly bribed by Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, according to the party’s presumed off-the-book ledgers. They deny the accusations.
High Council of Justice
The Verkhovna Rada was also unable to appoint its representative to the High Council of Justice. After Sept. 30, parliament will have no right to do that, and the Congress of Judges will instead delegate a representative.
While parliament could have appointed a representative trusted by society, the Congress of Judges, which represents the unreformed juducial system, is likely to choose a controversial or dishonest member, the Reanimation Package of Reforms said on Sept. 24.
The only decision on judicial reform that the Verkhona Rada managed to make this week is the dismissal of about 400 judges who voluntarily submitted their resignation.
Judges are currently resigning en masse ahead of the Sept. 30 launch of judicial reform.
Critics say they are thus trying to escape vetting, since they will have to explain the origin of their wealth after Sept. 30.
Transparency International on Sept. 14 published an investigation showing that judges have declared gifts and prizes worth millions of hryvnias and high-end cars.
