Olena Tanasevych, head of the High Anti-Corruption Court, attended a party with major suspects in several corruption cases, according to a Jan. 14 report by the Slidstvo.info investigative show, citing several law enforcement sources.
The suspects include Pavlo Vovk, head of the Kyiv District Administrative Court and Oleksandr Tupytsky, head of the Constitutional Court. Other judges of the Constitutional Court also attended the party.
Tanasevych’s presence at the party coincided with controversial rulings by her court that helped Vovk escape responsibility in a corruption case. Her party attendance prompted critics to question the integrity of the High Anti-Corruption Court, which was assembled in 2018-2019 with the help of foreign experts.
Serhiy Kivalov, head of the Odesa Law Academy and controversial pro-Russian former lawmaker, hosted the party at the academy’s Intellectual Property Institute in Kyiv on Dec. 23.
Tanasevych initially refused to comment. Later, she said she was meeting with Vasyl Felyk, head of the Kyiv Intellectual Property Institute of the Odesa Law Academy, at the same place and time as the party, at 6 p.m. on Dec. 23. She said they discussed organizing online lectures for students.
Felyk countered that he met with Tanasevych at lunchtime.
“I don’t know why Tanasevych attended Kivalov’s party but that’s not important,” Halia Chyzhuk, a judicial expert at the Anti-Corruption Action Center, wrote on Facebook on Jan. 14. “The worst thing is that her presence at such an event undermines the court’s reputation as an institution, and the High Anti-Corruption Court’s head appears not to be aware of it.”
Vovk’s corruption
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) on Dec. 24 posted a video in which a detective of the bureau tries to hand a bail hearing summons to the High Anti-Corruption Court to Vovk at Kivalov’s party. The judge is seen running away from the detective and throwing the summons away.
The case against Vovk, who is seen by civil society as the epitome of Ukrainian corruption, has been obstructed by the entire law enforcement system. Vovk faces charges of organized crime, abuse of power, bribery and unlawful interference with government officials. He denied the accusations.
On Jan. 13, the High Council of Justice issued a warning to Timur Khamzin, a judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court, for allowing NABU to search Vovk’s office. The council claimed there were no grounds for the searches.
The council members are also implicated in the Vovk case. In wiretapped conversations released by NABU, Vovk mentioned the involvement of High Council of Justice members in his alleged corruption schemes. They did not respond to requests for comment.
The council has also opened a probe against Andriy Bitsyuk, another High Anti-Corruption Court judge, in what anti-corruption activists see as an effort to pressure him to bury the Vovk case.
On Jan. 6, Bitsyuk refused to uphold NABU’s motion to extend the Vovk investigation by two months. This move may destroy the Vovk case since the NABU will have to either close it or send it to trial within a short period.
On Jan. 5, Bitsyuk also refused to bring Vovk to court for a bail hearing by force.
Vovk has ignored all of NABU’s summonses sent to the Kyiv District Administrative Court’s address for several months. The High Anti-Corruption Court tried to consider bail for Vovk several times but he failed to show up to the hearings.
Tupytsky case
Constitutional Court Chairman Tupytsky, who attended Kivalov’s party with Vovk and Tanasevych, also has an infamous reputation.
Tapes published by NABU document Vovk’s alleged efforts to unlawfully influence the Constitutional Court and gain control over it.
A source familiar with the matter told the Kyiv Post that Vovk was behind the scheme to fire Stanyslav Shevchuk as chairman of the Constitutional Court in May 2019 and replace him with Tupytsky in September 2019. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because it is an investigative secret.
The Prosecutor General’s Office on Dec. 28 charged Tupytsky with unlawfully influencing and bribing a witness to make him give false testimony. He denies the accusations.
Newly leaked audiotapes implicate Tupytsky in receiving and extorting bribes in collusion with other people, according to an investigation published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Schemes program on Dec. 21.
Tupytsky has faced harsh public criticism since Oct. 27, when the Constitutional Court issued a ruling that effectively destroyed Ukraine’s entire asset declaration system for state officials, eliminating a crucial pillar of the country’s anti-corruption infrastructure. Like several other judges, he voted for the decision despite having a conflict of interest, according to the National Agency for Preventing Corruption.
Tupitsky also acquired land in Russian-annexed Crimea in 2018 and did not show this in his asset declaration, according to an Oct. 28 report by Schemes.
On Dec. 29, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree to suspend Tupuytsky, based on the corruption charges against him. The Constitutional Court refused to implement the decree.
Kivalov controversy
According to the Vovk tapes, former lawmaker Kivalov took part in Vovk’s schemes to unlawfully influence the High Qualification Commission of Judges.
Both Kivalov and Antonina Slavytska, previously an aide to Kivalov and now a pro-Russian lawmaker, discussed Vovk’s schemes with the judge in the recordings. She is also a close acquaintance of Vovk, according to NABU.
Kivalov and Slavytska did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2006 to 2007, Vovk was an aide to Kivalov, a powerful ally of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Kivalov is believed to have held a great deal of influence over the judiciary ever since he was the head of the High Council of Justice in 2001 to 2004.
In 2004 Kivalov also headed the Central Election Commission when the Supreme Court ruled that the commission had rigged the presidential election in favor of Yanukovych. The commission’s actions triggered the Orange Revolution, which brought President Viktor Yushchenko to power.
