Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said confidence in the country’s judicial system needs to be restored.
Answering journalists’ questions at a press marathon in Kyiv on Oct. 10 about reforming the judicial system, he expressed the hope legislation would be considered by parliament in the near future.
“There is no trust in the judges … they were the second least trusted after members of parliament from who we’ve striped immunity. When we talk about trust in judges, look at Mr.[Maksym] Mykytas [former MP, the owner of LLC Ukrbud Development]… Prosecutors requested Hr 300 million bail (as a preventative measure) and he was released after Hr 5 million bail was posted. This is to say we just need to change the judges. Not all of them. There will be competitions (for selecting new judges), and some (applicants) will pass, some will not. But young blood must come in, otherwise in this form we will not have normal (legal) rulings…,” Zelensky said.
The ruling on Mykytas was handed down by the High Anti-corruption Court of Ukraine, which was formed on a tight competitive basis and launched in September 2019.
As reported, on October 2 the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Ukraine’s Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) said ex-MP Mykytas was suspected of taking possession of property of Ukraine’s National Guard in the amount of more than Hr 81 million, qualifying his actions under Part 3 of Article 27 and Part 5 of Article 191 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code.
The investigation established that the ex-MP, using construction companies controlled by him, acting in preliminary agreement with the ex-commander of the National Guard, the general director of a developer, a private appraiser and others, organized a corrupt scheme to seize real estate owned by the National Guard.
In the 2000s, the Main Directorate of Internal Troops of the Interior Ministry (later reorganized into Ukraine’s National Guard) and a construction company entered into an agreement under which a residential complex with built-in parking lots and non-residential premises were to be built on the territory of the former military unit. In exchange for a land plot of about 1 hectare in the center of Kyiv, the National Guard was to receive 50 apartments and 30 parking spaces in a residential complex.
In 2016-2017, the parties entered into additional agreements, according to which the National Guard refused to accept apartments and parking spaces in Kyiv’s Pechersky District in exchange for 65 apartments in an apartment building, which the same construction company was building on the outskirts of Kyiv (near the Chervony Khutir metro station).
NABU emphasized that the value of “these apartments, as established by the examination carried out as part of the pretrial investigation, is Hr 81,635,448 less than that which the apartments the National Guard was to receive based on the initial agreement.”
In May 2019, suspicion notices were served to the ex-commander of the National Guard, the general director of the developer company and the appraiser. In July, the circle of suspects was replenished by the executive director of the said company.
NABU detectives have been investigating the case since December 2017.
On October 4, the HACC set bail for Mykytas as a preventive measure in amount of Hr 5.5 million.
