Supreme Court has made decision that actually allows almost 180 dishonest judges to remain in their positions - AntAC
On 13 June, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court issued a decision that could have a significant impact on the implementation of judicial reform and the lustration of courts. In this case, a judge challenged the procedure of qualification assessment of judges.
This is stated in the material of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, Censor.NET reports.
According to preliminary estimates, this decision may help about 180 judges who have already received negative opinions from the Public Integrity Council to come off with a whole skin.
"There is no doubt that this decision was made by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court in the interests of dishonest judges, playing along with the judicial mafia," the AntAC emphasises.
The AntAC is confident that dubious characters in the High Council of Justice (HCJ) and the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) will try to interpret it in such a way as to not only help the 180 dishonest judges, but also undermine future qualification procedures.
Which judges are affected by this decision of the Supreme Court?
As noted, the HQCJ cannot conduct plenary interviews and dismiss 180 dishonest judges with Public Integrity Council (PIC) conclusions on incompetence in accordance with the procedure established by law.
According to Vitalii Shabunin, head of the AntAC, the Supreme Court's decision was made primarily by "devils from the most high-profile courts, including the liquidated Kyiv District Administrative Court (KDAC):
- Viktoriia Dzharty is a judge of the Kyiv Commercial Court. She loves luxury goods and owns luxury real estate.
- Serhii Chvankin is the head of the Kyiv District Court of Odesa, whose family owns luxury apartments in Miami.
- Pavlo Horbasenko is the chairman of the Economic Court of Kyiv Region, who owns luxury real estate and a huge fortune.
- Dmytro Kostenko and Andrii Fedorchuk from the KDAC). In 2017, the latter played into the hands of Surkis and Kolomoiskyi in the case of the nationalization of PrivatBank, legalized the classification of declarations of military prosecutor Matios, and also legalised the exclusion of the Hostynnyi Dvir from the list of architectural monuments.
- Mariia Demydova is a judge of the Economic Court of Chernihiv region (sister of HCJ member Serhii Burlakov), whose family has purchased 4 apartments, a house and luxury cars from unknown sources.
The essence of the Supreme Court's decision
Currently, about 1800 judges still have to undergo the qualification, including judges of the odious Kyiv District Administrative Court and the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv.
The decision refers, in particular, to the number of HQCJ members who must vote in favour of a judge if the Public Integrity Council (PIC) has previously concluded that the judge is not honest. This is 11 in the plenary or 3 in the HQCJ panel.
It is obvious that it is much easier for an unscrupulous judge to pass the evaluation procedure if the decision to evaluate him or her is made by 3 people, not 11, the AntAC noted.
"In a positive scenario, the HCJ will review and dismiss these judges, but then the decision of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court opens up a field and new arguments for the latter to appeal the decision of the High Council of Justice. It is also important that such an approach and change in judicial practice, in addition to the obvious negative impact on the assessment of individual judges, creates a field for further manipulation of the qualification assessment process and decision-making by the HQCJ," the AntAC added.
