The High Council of Justice (HCJ), the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) and the Public Integrity Council should be engaged in cleansing the Supreme Court of dishonest judges, such as those who changed the sentence of the former FSB agent Oleksandr Shepelev, accused of a series of contract killings, high treason and other crimes, in violation of the law. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.
"At the moment, we have all the mechanisms for disciplinary assessments of judges, which reduce the need to restart a new full selection of Supreme Court judges. If there are disciplinary violations or criminal proceedings, the HQCJ, HCJ, and PIC are working, so I don't see any additional steps or need," Yurchyshyn said.
According to him, endless reforms are much worse than when you can stop at a certain stage and work with the mechanisms that are available.
Answering a clarifying question whether the reform is really not needed to clear the Supreme Court of dishonest judges, and this can be done by the HCJ and the HQCJ, Yurchyshyn said: "Absolutely, we have invested a lot of effort in establishing anti-corruption bodies and judicial selection bodies, so now we need to do another reform."
At the same time, he believes that once the service of disciplinary inspectors is launched, they will significantly help the High Council of Justice in reviewing disciplinary cases.
Earlier, Oleksiy Lyaskovets, a lawyer who is currently at the front, said in a commentary to UNN that legislative changes are needed to provide a clear list of grounds for reviewing decisions of the High Council of Justice by members of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, because now it is a one-way game.
Recall
A panel of the Supreme Court changed Shepelev's sentence in the escape from custody case and tried to release him. Judges Vyacheslav Marynych, Volodymyr Korol and Alla Makarovets decided to close one of the episodes of the case, which concerned bribery, due to what they considered 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 used 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.
Prosecutor appealed the actions of the Supreme Court judges to the HCJ.