Cherkasy judge reports on pressure put on him by head of court

Judge of the Court of Appeal of Cherkasy region Serhiy Bondarenko said he had experienced longstanding and systematic interference in his work as a judge by the leadership of this court.

The judge said about this in details during the court hearing at the Oleksandrivka District Court of Kirovohrad region, the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent reports from the courtroom.

The court in the village of Oleksandrivka considered the complaint of Serhiy Bondarenko against the resolution of the Prosecutor’s Office of Cherkasy region to close the criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Article 376 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Unlawful interference with the work of the automated workflow system of court by a group of persons upon their prior conspiracy).

According to judge Bondarenko, Head of the Court of Appeal of Cherkasy region Volodymyr Babenko put pressure on him demanding to deliver unlawful judgment in the case of PJSC Azot vs. teacher A.A. Yashan on evicting her from the service building.

“Head of the Court Babenko called me in his office and said that the judgment should be delivered in favor of PJSC Azot, arguing that the company would provide the Court with the Palace of Friendship of Peoples to celebrate the Day of Court free of charge. I did not answer anything and returned to my office,” Serhiy Bondarenko said.

After the judge had delivered the judgment, he received threats from the Head of the Court, which, according to Serhiy Bondarenko, were accidentally recorded. The prosecutor’s office did not accept this evidence. After judge Bondarenko had expressed the dissenting opinion in the judgment on the appeal, filed by the Prosecutor’s Office of Cherkasy region and the Ukraine’s Security Service against LLC “Kaniv Left-bank Hunting Entity” on the release of property from the attachment, the unknown people burned the car of the judge on September 11, 2014. Serhiy Bondarenko said that some people spied near his apartment, noting that only the court had his address of residence. In addition, according to the judge, he was not given an aide, his applications, inquiries, and memoranda were not registered, and the vacation days were not provided in full.

Judge’s lawyer, Oleksiy Chubyn, drew the attention of the investigating judge to the fact that the Prosecutor’s Office had not checked the fact of belonging to PJSC Azot of the car, which was regularly used by Head of the Court Volodymyr Babenko. The lawyer described the investigation as biased and incomplete.