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About 1,000 protesters rallied in Kyiv on Nov. 12 amid bitter cold, snow and rain to demand new laws outlining the process of presidential impeachment and the creation of an anti-corruption court separate from the rest of the judicial system.
The demonstrators walked from Mykhailovska Square in front of the Mykhailovsky Monastery, a symbolic site near where the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution began, to Maidan Nezaleshnosti and Institutska Street, where more than 100 EuroMaidan protesters were killed in early 2014.
The protesters brought flowers and candles to the site of EuroMaidan activists’ murders and used candles to form the words “corruption kills” in front of the Presidential Administration on Bankova Street nearby.
Subsequently, the demonstrators marched to their tent camp in front of the Verkhovna Rada building that was set up on Oct. 17.
Ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili reiterated at the rally that, if the authorities don’t accept the protesters’ demands, “a popular impeachment” of President Petro Poroshenko and other top officials will begin on Dec. 3, implying large-scale protests from that date.
He said facilities to train future political leaders and activists would be set up at the protest camp, and a network to spread information about the protests would be created in other Ukrainian regions.
“This (political system) doesn’t let us into it, and they are preserving their swamp and want all of us to drown in this swamp,” Saakashvili said, apparently echoing a campaign slogan of U.S. President Donald Trump, who promised to “drain the swamp” in the U.S. capital.
One of the protesters’ key demands is the creation of an anti-corruption court separate from the rest of Ukraine’s judicial system. They have been pushing for a court whose judges would be recruited in an independent and transparent process. The court itself would have jurisdiction over corrupt officials.
Protesters are saying that an anti-corruption court would be a remedy because it would be able to convict corrupt officials, while Ukraine’s discredited and politicized conventional judiciary is incapable of doing so. The argument for a special anti-corruption court grew stronger as Poroshenko on Nov. 10 appointed to the Supreme Court 25 judges who have ill-gotten wealth, participated in political cases, made unlawful rulings or are under investigation in graft cases, according to the Public Integrity Council.
Poroshenko has so far failed to submit a bill to create an anti-corruption court to parliament. According to a decision by the Venice Commission, it would be preferable for the president, not lawmakers, to introduce the legislation to avoid potential legal problems linked to the wording of the Constitution.
However, Poroshenko has been accused of dragging his feet on the legislation by calling for the creation of a working group on the bill instead of submitting it himself. Earlier this week, Poroshenko Bloc and its allies blocked the withdrawal of an opposition bill on an anti-corruption court, which would clear the way for Poroshenko to submit his own legislation.
Ambitions to introduce an impeachment law may be even more difficult to see through.
While the Ukrainian Constitution envisages presidential impeachment, there is no lower-level law that enables it. A bill that outlines impeachment procedures has been submitted by Yuriy Derevyanko, a lawmaker from Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces, but has not yet been considered by the Verkhovna Rada.
The demonstrators who have camped out in front of the Rada since Oct. 17 are also demanding the lifting of lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution and legislation to introduce a fairer electoral system.
The Verkovna Rada on Nov. 7 passed in the first reading a bill to introduce a new electoral system as thousands of protesters rallied outside.
The election bill seeks to scrap single-mandate election districts, a major vehicle of political corruption, and introduce “open party lists,” which means that citizens will vote not only for parties themselves, but also for specific candidates nominated by the parties.
On Oct. 19, the Verkhovna Rada sent two bills on lifting lawmakers’ immunity for consideration to the Constitutional Court after thousands rallied near the parliament building on Oct. 17.
In a separate incident on Nov. 10, the bodyguard of Saakashvili’s son was deported from Boryspil Airport. Ukrainian authorities did not let the guard enter the country with Saakashvili’s son, and sent him back to Georgia.
Saakashvili’s son was held for several hours before his father arrived to retrieve him.
Three other associates of Saakashvili say they were kidnapped in Kyiv, beaten, and then illegally transported to Georgia by Ukrainian authorities on Oct. 21. The authorities deny accusations of wrongdoing.
Khikmet Dzhavadov, chairman of the United Azerbaijani Diaspora in Ukraine, said on Nov. 8 he was also facing possible deportation from Ukraine due to his support for Saakashvili.
Meanwhile, the Prosecutor General’s Office on Nov. 10 summoned Saakashvili ally Derevyanko for questioning in a tax evasion investigation in what he saw as a fabricated political case.
