According to a new journalistic investigation, a powerful alliance got rid of Stanislav Shevchuk, one of the most effective and independent justices on the Constitutional Court.
Notorious Judge Pavlo Vovk, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ex-chief of staff Andriy Bohdan and lawyer Andriy Portnov organized the dismissal of Shevchuk, head of the Constitutional Court, in May 2019, according to a Sept. 8 investigation by the Slidstvo.info journalism project.
Portnov denied the accusations, while Bohdan and Vovk did not respond to requests for comment.
Vovk, head of the Kyiv District Administrative Court, was hit with obstruction of justice charges in 2019 and corruption charges in a different case in 2020. But prosecutors and other judges have effectively destroyed the Vovk cases.
Vovk is arguably Ukraine’s most infamous judge. Civil society sees him as the symbol of judicial corruption and impunity and he’s been audiotaped discussing corrupt deals and even bragging about the “political prostitution” of his court. He has denied all allegations against him.
Constitutional coup
In May 2019, a majority of the Constitutional Court judges voted to fire Shevchuk as both the chairman and a member of the court and elected Natalia Shaptala as the new chairperson. In doing so, the Constitutional Court upheld a decision of its ethics commission and dismissed Shevchuk for an alleged disciplinary infraction and negligence.
Shevchuk denies the accusations and considers the dismissal as an unlawful coup engineered by Oleksandr Tupytsky, who became the court’s chairman when Shaptala retired in September 2019. Tupytsky denied the accusations.
According to new Vovk tapes released by Slidstvo.info, Vovk constantly discussed organizing Shevchuk’s dismissal with influential heavyweights.
“There is a majority to fucking take him down,” he said in the tapes in an apparent reference to Shevchuk.
“Let him quarrel,” Vovk also said in the tapes about Shevchuk. “He was told directly: either you fucking work as part of the team or you get the fuck out of here.”
Another judge quipped about Ukraine’s corrupt judiciary while discussing Shevchuk’s dismissal in the tapes.
“It’s ‘f***g bad when people from the f***g judicial branch of government are fighting for power through such f’***g methods,” he said.
Lustration
In the tapes, Vovk also discussed canceling through the Constitutional Court the 2014 lustration law, which bans top officials who served ex-President Viktor Yanukovych from state jobs.
“There is a group of people who are ready to vote for (canceling) lustration only if we fire him (Shevchuk),” Vovk said.
He also appears to refer to the lustration law in another conversation.
“If you start an attack right now, we should consider if we’ll get a number of the controversial decisions that we want to be made before (Zelensky’s) inauguration,” Vovk said.
Both Bohdan and Portnov were banned from state jobs by the lustration law and were interested in its cancellation. Bohdan was the Cabinet’s anti-corruption ombudsman in 2010-2014, while Portnov was a deputy chief of staff for Yanukovych and head of his administration’s judicial policy unit in the same years.
Eventually the Constitutional Court failed to cancel the lustration law due to public pressure. But Bohdan became Zelensky’s chief of staff in May 2019 in violation of the lustration law.
Portnov’s role
Specifically, Vovk discussed Shevchuk’s dismissal and other issues with Portnov.
Portnov, who has held considerable sway over Ukraine’s judiciary for many years, fled Ukraine in 2014 and returned on the eve of Zelensky’s inauguration in May 2019. Vovk used to be an aide to Portnov before he became a judge.
In the tapes, Vovk told Portnov to “launch” the process, apparently implying the dismissal of Shevchuk. He mentioned Portnov several times by name.
“Yesterday I talked to Andriy and asked one question,” Vovk said in the tapes. “It’s Portnov, the famous f***g lawyer and so on.”
Vovk also told the ex-deputy chief of staff about the planned appointment of a Portnov protege as a judge.
“Frankly speaking, I didn’t know he was your guy,” Vovk told Portnov.
Vovk also said in the tapes that after Zelensky’s election victory Portnov apparently thought that he would be back in power again and that people would flock to him to pledge allegiance.
“Andriy just wants everyone to call him and tell him: Andriy, everyone has kneeled before you, what should we do?” Vovk said. “I tried to explain to Andriy that it’s difficult to do that remotely (from abroad). They’re like f***g children. We gotta sit with everyone, talk to them and f***g bargain with them… Andriy plays the role of a scarecrow – let him do that.”
Bohdan’s role
In the tapes, Vovk also appears to mention Zelensky’s former chief of staff Bohdan as a participant of the efforts to get rid of Shevchuk and cancel the lustration law.
“You know, Andriy is very close to Zelensky, very close,” Vovk said. “Andriy Bohdan. I’m communicating with him. He’s a deputy head of the (Zelensky) campaign.”
Shevchuk said that he had met Bohdan for a casual conversation in April 2019.
“Andriy, look,” Vovk told a person who appears to be Bohdan. “There are six votes to include the issue into the agenda (an apparent reference to the lustration law). Andriy (apparently Portnov) told me yesterday that only T. (Tupytsky) doesn’t give his vote and explains that he wants to fire (Shevchuk). We’re interested in (votes on) controversial issues before Day X (the day of Zelensky’s inauguration). Let Andriy (Portnov) kick the shit out of him (Shevchuk).”
Four sources at the NABU and the Prosecutor General’s Office told the Kyiv Post that Bohdan is mentioned in the Vovk tapes. Specifically, one of the sources said that Vovk talked about vacationing with Bohdan in June 2019.
Online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reported in March, citing its sources, that Vovk met Bohdan in the summer of 2019. A law enforcement source told Ukrainska Pravda that Vovk had met Zelensky in 2019 and persuaded him that he would work as part of the president’s team.
The President’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Influence on the Constitutional Court
The NABU said in 2019-2020 that the Vovk tapes document his alleged efforts to unlawfully influence the Constitutional Court and get control over it, according to the NABU.
In February 2019 the Constitutional Court canceled the law criminalizing illicit enrichment.
Vovk was personally interested in the Constitutional Court ruling because the NABU had investigated an illicit enrichment case against him. The case was closed after the ruling.
“Thanks to our common efforts, the decision to recognize the illicit enrichment (law) as unconstitutional has been born,” Vovk told one of his court’s judges after the ruling was issued. “That’s why you can buy anything you want.”
One of the court’s judges also told Vovk: “Chief, you effectively pressured Constitutional Court judges through lawmakers, and a case may be opened against you.”
“We already own two courts – the Constitutional Court and the Kyiv Administrative District Court,” Vovk also said in the tapes.
Sabotage of Vovk case
All attempts to hold Vovk responsible for corruption and obstruction of justice have run into an impenetrable wall. Courts have refused to extend investigations against the judge while prosecutors missed deadlines for sending the cases to trial.
For months, Vovk dodged summonses from the NABU. Zelensky’s loyal Prosecutor General Venediktova repeatedly refused to authorize an arrest warrant. She also refused to let NABU search Vovk’s office or wiretap him and fired her deputy who authorized corruption charges against the judge.
Responding to accusations of sabotage, Venediktova said in March that she cannot take Vovk to court by force. She added that she doubted the effectiveness of the investigation and said that she did not see any “trial prospects” in the case.
