The Supreme Court needs to be cleared of dishonest judges - Public Council at the NACP

The Supreme Court needs to be reformed and cleared of dishonest judges, so that cases like that of Oleksandr Shepelev, a former MP accused of a series of contract killings, high treason and other crimes, can be considered transparently and efficiently. This was stated by Kateryna Butko, chairman of the public council at the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC), in an exclusive commentary to UNN.

"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 other judges of the Supreme Court were involved in this bribe case of Zhevago and all the others, apparently, according to the investigation, as well. This shows that the problem is global," Butko said.

At the same time, she emphasized that so far, in addition to Knyazev, other judges of the Supreme Court should have received suspicions.

"We remember about 10 packages, even 13 packages, where the money was divided and transferred to judges. We know about 4 judges who were found to have this marked money, and they have not been suspected. And it is obvious that there is no trust in the Supreme Court, as there should be in a court, let alone a higher court. That is why the reform is necessary, it is timely. In fact, it should have happened much earlier, but unfortunately, we are still talking about it," Butko emphasized.

At the same time, she said, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has not yet been reformed, there is a way to check its judges, in particular by examining their declarations of integrity, i.e. whether their income corresponds to the lifestyle they lead. Butko emphasized that the verification of these declarations should be permanent, so that it will enable the High Qualification Commission of Judges to clean up the Supreme Court.

She also said it is necessary to fill the vacant positions of Supreme Court judges. "Therefore, we have a chance to clean up and reform the court. It just needs to be done without hiding behind unpopular solutions that have been proposed, such as the use of a polygraph and everything else, but simply using those mechanisms that will really work for cleansing, not for strengthening power and political influence in the Supreme Court," Butko said.

She added that after the Supreme Court is reformed and cleared of dishonest judges, the composition of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, which always has the final say in Supreme Court cases, will also change.

"When the Grand Chamber is cleared of dishonest judges, the Grand Chamber itself will change, and so we can hope that at least the hearings of such cases (like Shepelev's - ed.) will be more transparent and of higher quality. Plus, we understand that judges who make such decisions (like changing the verdict in Shepelev's case with violations - ed.) are usually judges who can make such possible corruption decisions, and this is usually not their only such decision," Butko said.

At the same time, she believes that with the start of the reform, there will be more vacancies in the Supreme Court, as judges who do not want to be evaluated and dismissed will honorably retire to keep their pensions of more than UAH 100,000 per month.

According to media reports, Hryhoriy Mamka, an MP from the Opposition Platform - For Life party, allegedly has connections in the Supreme Court that he can convert into the necessary decisions. For his mediation services in resolving issues in the Supreme Court, he allegedly takes amounts from 200 thousand dollars.

Recall

Earlier, Oleksiy Lyaskovets, a lawyer who is currently at the front, said that legislative changes are neededto 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.  

Volodymyr Vatras, chairman of the subcommittee on the organization and activities of the Bar, legal aid bodies of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy, in a commentary to UNN said that the Supreme Court should be cleared of judges who have compromised themselves.

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. As a result, the former MP's property will not be confiscated under this particular episode. However, according to experts interviewed by UNN, the Supreme Court judges did not have the right to directly examine any evidence.

In addition, the judges counted the period of Shepelev's stay in the Russian pre-trial detention center as part of the sentence. He was detained in Russia following an extradition request from Ukraine. A year later, Russia refused to extradite the fugitive ex-MP to Ukraine, citing threats to its own national security. It turned out that Shepelev was valuable to Russia because he was a FSB agent and a game.  The Supreme Court panel also used the Savchenko law and counted his time in a pre-trial detention center on charges in other cases as part of his sentence. The prosecutor appealed the actions of the Supreme Court judges to the HCJ.