President Petro Poroshenko on April 11 appointed 38 judges to the newly established High Anti-Corruption Court, including eight controversial ones.
“Today 38 new judges are assuming their duties,” Poroshenko said. “They have the tools to be successful: judicial reform has given them independence from the legislative and executive branches, and the president.”
He added that the court had not been set up yet, but premises for it had been allocated.
However, legal experts have challenged some of the appointments.
According to several lawyers, one of the new anti-corruption judges, Serhiy Bodnar, has no legal right to be a judge of the court because he had an agreement to represent the interests of President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc in court in 2017. He denied the accusation.
The law on the anti-corruption court bans the appointment of anti-corruption judges who had agreements with political parties in recent years.
Another seven of the new anti-corruption judges had previously been identified by anti-corruption watchdogs as not meeting integrity standards.
Another of the newly-appointed anti-corruption judges, Inna Bilous, banned protesters from gathering near administrative buildings in Ternopil during the EuroMaidan Revolution. She has denied accusations of wrongdoing.
Lawyer Vitaly Tytych argued that Bilous’ ban on peaceful assemblies was arbitrary and violated European standards, as the ban was applied to an unlimited number of protesters and to an arbitrarily broad area. He added that the ban also violated the standards of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Another new anti-corruption judge is Valeria Chorna. Anti-corruption watchdogs have pointed to her elderly mother buying an apartment with an estimated value of up to Hr 2 million ($110,000) as a sign of possible corruption. Chorna argued that her mother could afford it, providing a document according to which the latter received $143,615 in wages in 2004 to 2014.
Volodymyr Voronko, a judge at the Commercial Court of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, was also appointed to the anti-corruption court. He has upheld a Hr 11.3 million debt claim by Optimius, a firm with a negligible share capital and dubious reputation, against the customs agency. The CEO of Optimus is the founder of another firm that has been investigated in a fraud case.
Optimus has also supplied fuel to Trade Commodity, a company under investigation in a corruption case at the Defense Ministry. One of Trade Commodity’s investors is businessman Andriy Adamovsky, a former business partner of Oleksandr Hranovsky, an influential lawmaker with the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction.
Voronko argued that his ruling was lawful and did not involve any fraud.
One of the newly-appointed anti-corruption judges with a good reputation is lawyer Markiyan Halabala, who has been praised by civil society.
Meanwhile, in March and earlier in April the High Council of Justice appointed 75 new Supreme Court judges. Their credentials have yet to be signed by the president.
Of these, 15 were vetoed by the Public Integrity Council over violations of professional ethics and integrity standards. However, these vetoes were ignored by the High Qualification Commission of Judges and the High Council of Justice.
Some of the Supreme Court appointees have been investigated over illegally interfering in the automatic distribution of cases and issuing unlawful rulings at the High Commercial Court under former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Ex-High Commercial Court Chairman Viktor Tatkov and his ex-deputy Artur Yemelyanov have been officially charged in this case.
The new Supreme Court appointees under investigation include High Council of Justice members Igor Benedysyuk and Natalia Volkovytska and Serhiy Mohyl, a nephew of Serhiy Kivalov, an ally of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. However, they have not been officially charged in the case and have denied accusations of wrongdoing.
