Experts tell what's wrong with the Supreme Court

Under Ukrainian law, judges have immunity, which is supposed to protect them from obstruction of justice. However, in practice, unscrupulous servants of Themis, hiding behind their status, are involved in corruption and other crimes. Judges of the Supreme Court are no exception. Experts interviewed by UNN believe that this institution should have been cleared of dishonest people in robes long ago, because society no longer trusts the Supreme Court.

Earlier, we reported that the Supreme Court judges were compromised by the case of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniazev, who was caught taking bribes totaling $2.7 million.  In particular, law enforcement officials reported that more than 30 searches were conducted in the framework of this case, including at the homes of other Supreme Court judges. The investigation seized "marked funds" from four judges. However, according to the investigation, some of the "marked bills" that Knyazev was supposed to give to other judges for making the necessary decisions have disappeared altogether.

Despite the NABU's promise, the names of the Supreme Court judges who may be involved in the Knyazev case have not yet been announced. Therefore, they continue to fulfill their duties. Transparency International Ukraine in a comment to UNN noted that it is unclear why those judges who have already been found to have "marked bills" have not yet been served with suspicions.

Not only the Knyazev case raises questions as to who are the judges of the Criminal Chamber of Cassation of the Supreme Court who may be involved in the bribe.

In particular, the case of the escape of a former MP accused of a series of contract killings and high treason, FSB agent Oleksandr Shepelev, which was also considered by the panel of judges of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, raises many questions.

Judges Vyacheslav Marynych, Volodymyr Korol and Alla Makarovets suddenly decided to close one of the episodes of the case, which concerned bribery, due to what they considered insufficient evidence. Commenting on this decision, experts interviewed by UNN, point out that the judges could have been interested in ruling in favor of the FSB agent.

Kateryna Butko, head of the public council at the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC), said that the Supreme Court needs to be reformed and cleared of dishonest judges, so that cases like that of FSB agent Shepelev's will be considered transparently and efficiently.

"There is no doubt that reform is needed and it is obvious. Although time has passed since the arrest of Knyazev, and attention to the Supreme Court has waned, we cannot forget that not only Knyazev, but also other judges of the Supreme Court were involved in this bribe case of Zhevago and all the others, apparently, according to the investigation, not only Knyazev, but also other judges of the Supreme Court. Therefore, this shows that the problem is global," Butko noted in a comment to UNN.

At the same time, she emphasized that due to the Knyazev case, the Supreme Court currently lacks confidence.

The Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC) believes that in order to cleanse the Supreme Court, Ukraine should have an effective procedure for checking judges for integrity. "The story of the Supreme Court's cleansing will be the general recipe for all such cases. And here we really need legislative initiatives, since there are no procedures for evaluating Supreme Court judges at the moment, but they need to be established, it is necessary to be able to check the integrity of Supreme Court judges," said Olena Shcherban, Deputy Executive Director, Head of the AntAC Legal Department, in a commentary to UNN.

She believes that judges of the Supreme Court of Ukraine should also undergo a qualification assessment, which will include a review of public information about them.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine also says that the integrity checks of the judiciary should be stricter. "It is important that corruption cases are brought to a conclusion. Today, anyone, including judges, can be accused. That's why we have law enforcement officers to bring it all to a logical conclusion. There should be a system that is so rigorous that such people are subjected to rigorous vetting and do not get into the judiciary, especially at the highest levels. This is the biggest problem - we need to change the system. Because so far, they are replacing people with people and, unfortunately, not always the worst with the best," said MP Mykhailo Tsymbalyuk in a commentary to UNN.

However, it is not only the procedure for checking judges for integrity that needs to be improved. According to Yulia Yatsyk, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement and head of the Subcommittee on Criminal Procedure and Operational Investigative Activity, Ukraine needs to create a separate body to investigate crimes committed by judges. According to her, law enforcement officers are currently "footballing" judicial cases to each other.

"If any facts about judges are revealed, they are "footballed" from one law enforcement agency to another, because every law enforcement agency understands that tomorrow I will have to go to this court and I will be an outcast. That is why we need to identify a specific body, define a specific jurisdiction, and ask this body about the crime detection rate for judges. Because in our country, the SBI solves 0.001% of crimes against judges, although this is their direct jurisdiction," Yatsyk said in a commentary to UNN.

Oleksiy Lyaskovets, a lawyer who is currently at the front, spoke in favor of a radical cleansing of the Supreme Court by dismissing all judges. As an example, he cited the dismissal of all judges in France after World War II, when the system was cleansed of clans and dynasties.

"We need to do something similar here. Look at those who have worked in our judicial system: they have higher incomes than those who have worked in business. And here's another issue: look at how many people applied for the competition for first-instance judges, and it's very strange that there are a large number of men. That is, there is no one to defend the country, but there is a line to adapt and rip off the state. And it's a shame," Lyaskovets said in a comment to UNN.

However, not all experts share this opinion. In particular, political analyst Hennadiy Dubov believes that all Supreme Court judges in a country at war should not be dismissed at the same time, as this could paralyze the entire system.

"Therefore, during the war, radical reforms should not be allowed, but of course, it is necessary to clean up. We can simply finish off the judiciary with the reform," said an expert in a commentary to UNN.

In his opinion, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the High Council of Justice (HCJ) should be responsible for clearing the Supreme Court of dishonest judges.

At the same time, as reported by the HCJ in response to a request by UNN, no judge of the Supreme Court was brought to disciplinary responsibility in 2023 after the restoration of the authorized composition of the High Council of Justice. Experts believe that this may be due to the mutual cover-up that exists in the judicial system.

"There is a general explanation for this situation - the mutual responsibility of judges in the entire judicial system. They jointly defend themselves both personally and as a corporation," noted political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko in a commentary to UNN.

All the experts interviewed by UNN agree that the Supreme Court has lost public confidence and needs to be cleansed and reformed. The only question is how this will be done.