The High Council of Justice (HCJ) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) should give a legal assessment of the actions of the Supreme Court judges who changed the sentence of Oleksandr Shepelev, a former MP suspected of treason, contract killings and other financial and corruption crimes. After all, they could have been motivated to make a decision in favor of FSB agent Shepelev. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by Viktor Bobirenko, head of the expert group of the Bureau of Policy Analysis.
The decision is clearly unlawful. Yes, no one stood with a candle, we did not see with our own eyes whether there was a bribe or not for such a decision, but I make a bold assumption that the judges were motivated in some way. A very bold assumption. Because I also read the comments of the legal community, which unanimously emphasized the illegality of the decision
Details
According to him, the High Council of Justice should investigate the prosecutor's complaint against the decision of Supreme Court judges Vyacheslav Marynych, Volodymyr Korol and Alla Makarovets and give their actions a legal assessment. Bobirenko emphasized that if this does not happen, international partners will have doubts as to whether Ukraine is really a state governed by the rule of law.
"If there is a public outcry, if society does not just shrug its shoulders, then it will work. The HCJ must give some kind of legal assessment, otherwise our allies will consider us not a state governed by the rule of law. I think the opinion of our allies should be taken into account," he said.
At the same time, Bobirenko believes that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) should be interested in the panel of judges of the Supreme Court that changed the sentence of former MP Shepelev. In his opinion, the detectives should check whether there was corruption in any of its manifestations during the consideration of the cassation appeal of the defense lawyers of the MP accused of contract killings.
"I really want to hope that NABU has investigators whose main motivation is to serve Ukraine and fight corruption. I remember the loud statements of the detectives about the Supreme Court judges. It was done publicly. More than half a year has passed and no names have been mentioned. In our case, the case is high-profile - it involves both money withdrawal and attempted murder. The reaction should be unequivocal. The lack of reaction will indicate that we do not live in a state governed by the rule of law," emphasized Bobirenko.
Context
In particular, the Supreme Court panel decided to close one of the episodes of the case, which concerned bribery, due to insufficient evidence. In addition, the judges significantly reduced Shepelev's sentence by crediting him with the period of stay in the Russian pre-trial detention center from March 19, 2015 to July 8, 2016. At that time, Russian law enforcement officers detained him following an extradition request from Ukraine. While the issue of his extradition to Ukraine was allegedly being resolved, Shepelev actively cooperated with the Russian Federal Security Service and was supposed to be held in a pre-trial detention center. A year later, Russia still refused to extradite the fugitive MP to Ukrainian justice, citing threats to its own national security. The Supreme Court panel also took advantage of the Savchenko Law and counted Shepeleva's stay in the pre-trial detention center on charges in other cases as part of his sentence. Thus, according to the decision of the cassation instance, Shepelev has fully served his sentence under the verdict of the Desnianskyi District Court of Kyiv of August 7, 2020. In addition, due to the closure of the bribery cases, the former MP's property will not be confiscated. According to the automatic distribution, the complaint in Shepelev's case will be considered by the first ever HCJ member judge who is fighting on the frontline against the Russian Federation Lena Cowboy.
To recap
Earlier, it was revealed that Shepelev was valuable to Russia because he was an agent of the Russian special services. This is evidenced by documents written by him. In particular, an explanatory note to the director of the FSB. This is also confirmed by his active position on justifying Russian aggression and the annexation of Crimea, which he expressed during his communication with FSB representatives.
As it turned out, Shepelev also supported and worked for terrorist quasi-republics and considers the dpr his home and homeland. Experts interviewed by UNN had previously questioned the objectivity of the Supreme Court's decision, speaking frankly about the corruption component. In particular, according to Mykhailo Zhernakov, Chairman of the Board of the DEJURE Foundation, Supreme Court judges could have received monetary rewards for such a decision. Political analyst Oleksandr Kochetkov believes that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) should check the integrity of the judgeswho made such a decision in the Shepelev case.