A compromised Supreme Court can turn the entire judicial reform being implemented in Ukraine into ashes, so it must be reformed and cleansed at the earliest opportunity. Given the existing political will, this process can take 4-7 months. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by Olena Shcherban, Deputy Executive Director, Head of the Legal Department of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC).
"Yes, of course, it is necessary to reform. We need to clean up, a cleansing procedure like a qualification or integrity assessment. A procedure similar to the way the HCJ was cleared. And we think that if such a procedure is implemented, it will result in a number of dishonest judges resigning themselves, as happened with the HCJ in its time," Shcherban said.
According to her, there are many tools for reforming the Supreme Court in terms of lustration. Shcherban reminded that Ukraine has an existing ethics council that cleansed the High Council of Justice, and there is also a Public Council of International Experts that selected judges of the Anti-Corruption Court.
"These institutions can check the integrity of the Supreme Court judges, and, as a result, dishonest judges will lose their positions. This is critically important, because it is this unclean, compromised Supreme Court that is authorized to review the decisions of the HCJ, the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ), which are now supposed to clean up the judicial system, and, accordingly, they can cancel any dismissal of a judge, deprivation of his or her position, and so on," Shcherban said.
She emphasized that the Supreme Court shapes the entire practice of all courts.
"For example, the negative generated in the criminal process due to the Lozovyi amendments (a series of amendments to the CPC adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on the initiative of MP Andriy Lozovyi - ed.) - part of the blame for this also lies with the Supreme Court, which has actually concreted its negative with its practice. Therefore, if it is not cleaned up in the next year, it can turn a lot of what has been done in judicial reform into ashes," noted Shcherban.
The lawyer added that this requires changing the legislation, and, in fact, such models already exist. According to Shcherban, if there is political will, the parliament can adopt them in a month or two, and the procedure for cleansing the Supreme Court will then take 3-5 months.
Answering the question of whether there is a chance that the dishonest judges will be replaced by virtuous ones, Shcherban said: "Of course. It's like the story that the fish rots from the head. The Supreme Court is the head of the judicial system. That is why it should be cleansed as soon as possible and at the earliest opportunity."
As a reminder
, the High Anti-Corruption Court has extended the preventive measure against former Supreme Court Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniazev for another two months. He was detained on May 15 for bribes totaling $2.7 million. The bribe was supposed to facilitate the resolution of a case considered by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court. This is a case concerning the ownership of 40.19% of shares in Ferrexpo's Poltava Mining and Processing Plant (PMP). In its decision, the body left these shares to companies related to Zhevago, canceling the invalidation of the sale and purchase agreements concluded 20 years ago.
In addition, we told you that Supreme Court judges Vyacheslav Marynych, Volodymyr Korol and Alla Makarovets considered the defense's cassation appeal against the verdict in the case of ex-MP Oleksandr Shepelev, accused of contract killings, high treason and other crimes, changed his sentence and tried to release him in the case of bribery and escape from the pre-trial detention center. The prosecutor appealed the actions of the Supreme Court judges to the HCJ.
By automatic distribution the complaint in Shepelev's case will be considered by the first ever judge of the Supreme Council of Justice who fights on the front line against Russia, Olena Kovbiy.
Shepelev actively justified Russian aggression and the annexation of Crimea, which he expressed during his communication with representatives of the FSB, and actively cooperated with the terrorist "dnR."