MP: It will be impossible to punish judges who harassed Maidan activists in three months

It will be impossible to hold liable the judges who harassed Euromaidan activists in 3.5 months as the three-year term allowing to do this will expire.

This was stated by Serhiy Vlasenko, the MP from the Batkivshchyna faction and the chairman of the Parliament’s Committee on State Building, during the agenda-setting council, the Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper reports.

“A strategic event, a strategic defeat of Ukraine, which, unfortunately, no one paid attention to, took place last week. Everyone knows that a group of Tatkov-Yemelyanov was working in the system of economic litigation proceeding. So, last week the High Council of Justice, having identified the abuse in actions of judge Yemelyanov, could not bring him to justice since three-year liability term had expired. The High Council of Justice said: ‘Yes, he violated, but we cannot hold him liable,” Vlasenko said.

“Taking into the fact that the Verkhovna Rada did not work for almost two years for various reasons, this means that almost all judges, who violated the law, will escape prosecution,” Vlasenko said.

According to him “we will not be able to hold liable those, who sentenced Maidan activists to imprisonment, in three and a half months, as a three-year term will be over.”

Vlasenko informed that the draft amendments No. 4293 to the Law of Ukraine on “Judicial System and Status of Judges” had been submitted to the Parliament, where a three-year term is replaced with five-year term.

“And we solve this issue,” Vlasenko said.

According to the explanatory note to the amendments, it is proposed to establish that “disciplinary penalty on a judge should be imposed no later than five [earlier three] upon commission of the offense without regard to time of judge’s temporary incapacity to work or stay on leave.”

As reported, Ukrainian Parliament passed the draft law on judicial system and status of judges on June 2.

The new law abolished the High Specialized Court, the High Economic Court and the High Administrative Court and provided for establishment of the High Anti-Corruption Court, the High Court for Intellectual Property and local district courts.

The Parliament also passed constitutional amendments related to judiciary on June 2.

June 28, President Petro Poroshenko signed the law on constitutional amendments related to judiciary.

 According to information on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, the law on judicial system and status of judges was submitted to the President for signature.