Qualification Commission to consider complaint about ‘madness’ of Cherkasy judge Bondarenko

February 16, the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine will consider the complaint about the “madness” of Serhiy Bondarenko, the judge of the Court of Appeal of Cherkasy region.

The complaint was filed to the Commission by citizen Vasyl Pashchenko, barrister of the judge and lawyer of Automaidan Roman Maselko posted on his Facebook page.

Earlier, the judge stated that Head of the Court Volodymyr Babenko had asked him to deliver unlawful judgments. When he refused, he started to experience systematic pressure, threats and disruption of his work. The car of the judge was set on fire and the unknown persons followed him near his apartment. He still works without an assistant.

Roman Maselko notes that the judge did not participate in the hearing of the case involving the complainant, who points to the illegal actions of judges and says that he is mentally ill.

The lawyer also draws attention to the violation of the secrecy of the deliberations room.

“Can you explain how a person, who is not a judge, may know what’s going on in the deliberations room? This information is secret after all. As a minimum, this means that one of the judges told Pashchenko what was happening in the room. I wonder whether the High Qualification Commission of Judges will be interested in this issue and how it will respond,” Roman Maselko writes.

“For me, this complaint is another confirmation of honesty of judge Bondarenko. For three years of struggle, nothing was found to testify against him. That is why, they decided to present him as insane…” he noted, adding that the charges of Vasyl Pashchenko are similar to the charges of Court’s Head Volodymyr Babenko, announced at the press briefing last year.

Roman Maselko notes that the High Qualification Commission of Judges has not been considering the appeals of the MPs regarding the pressure on the judge since November 2014 while it decided to consider the complaint filed three months later.

According to the agenda of the meeting of the High Qualification Commission of Judges, the members plan to consider holding judge Serhiy Bondarenko administratively liable on February 16.

Chair of the Council of Judges Valentyna Symonenko suggested “letting go” the conflict between Head of the Court of Appeal of Cherkasy region Volodymyr Babenko and judge of this court Serhiy Bondarenko. Such a proposal was sharply criticized by Roman Maselko.