Only 29% of the candidates for Supreme Court are not related to judicial system
464 judges and only 189 candidates not related to judicial system will compete for 120 judge seats in the Supreme Court
As reported by media service of civil movement Chesno to the Human Rights Information Centre referring to the list published by High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine.
It is reported that on the stage of admission HQCJU excluded 45% of lawyer, scientists and candidates with collective experience. While the commission excluded only 7% of the judges.
“1436 judges, scientists and lawyers sent their online applications during the month, while only 846 of them applied their documents and only 653 of them received admission from HQCJU”, – said in the statement.
Media service of Chesno report that Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court caused the least attention among the candidates. Competition there is only 4 applicants per place. There is also small interest in the Chamber of Commerce, only 4.5 applicants per place. More candidates are interested in criminal and civil chambers of the future Supreme Court. There are 6 and 7 applicants per place accordingly.
Judges of local and specialized courts showed considerable interest in the competition of the Supreme Court. 325 judges from these courts decided to compete with judges from higher courts as well as lawyers and scientists. It is noteworthy that most of the candidates are from Kyiv, Donetsk and Kharkiv districts. The least amount of candidates to the Supreme Court are from Khmelnytsky and Cherkasy districts.
“A number of infamous judges were not afraid of special verifications and anti-corruption bodies. Those judges were repeatedly mentioned by journalists and activists of the Chesno movement as a part of “CHESNO.Filter the court!” campaign. One of those judges is infamous Arthur Yemelyanov, who embodies corruption of the judiciary system during the presidency of Yanukovych. He is suspected of interfering in an automated document workflow system and “manual” distribution of cases among the “right” judges”, – said in the statement.
Civil movement Chesno also noted the presence of Janna Kornilova among the candidates, who is known for her commitment to Svyatoslav Piskun, the former Prosecutor General. She reinstated Piskun in his position after the decree of his dismissal was signed by the president and has repeatedly decided on the interests of the former Prosecutor General.
Another candidate is Malvina Danilov, who became famous after the sensational robbery of 500 thousand dollars in which she accused the online declaration, although she did not indicate these funds in the declaration.
Candidates will undergo special verification by anti-corruption bodies and qualification assessment and conclusions of the Council of Public Integrity. Due to the law about the High Council of Justice, Council of Public Integrity received real power. If the conclusion of the Council of Public Integrity is negative, then High Council of Justice has to collect ¾ votes in order to appoint a judge who had no support of the public.
Civil movement Chesno urged journalists and civil society activists to closely monitor the competition in the Supreme Court and inform them about the involvement of candidates to corruption, crimes as well as violations of human rights, statues of the law and ethics.
