Selection of candidates to the Supreme Court could have been falsified – expert

The selection of candidates to the Supreme Court could have been falsified.

As reported by Mykhailo Zhernakov, Member of the public organization Reanimation Package of Reforms, on his blog on the Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) website, referring to the statistical analysis of the distribution of scores of candidates to the Administrative Court of Cassation.

According to him, the scores indicate that the “results were “adjusted” manually by deliberately lowering the scores of one person and increasing of others (there are too many candidates who received about 40 points and a large number in the range of 72-84), which means that the works could have been deciphered and personified in the process”.

Zhernakov states that such results “at the very least indicates the departure of one of the collegiums from the principles of evaluation, which were previously declared by the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ). And at worst about the conscious distortion of the results”.

In another blog Zhernakov said that the authoritative judges did not move on to the next stages after the second stage. However, according to him, the top five includes Pavlo Vovk, a former assistant of ex-regionalist Serhiy Kivalov.

“Judges, whom were looked up by almost all judges of administrative courts for their quality of judgments, scored a minimum of points and have not proceeded to the next stage. While the list was topped by functionaries of the system of administrative courts, who are rather famous for their abilities to carry out political instructions rather than the qualitative judgments. The top five includes Pavlo Vovk, a former assistant of Serhiy Kivalov and now head of the infamous District Administrative Court of Kyiv – the judges of that court forbade peaceful assembly at the time of the Maidan”, – he wrote.

Also, according to him, the personality of a member of the HQCJ Yuriy Titov, who is a member of the supervisory board of the Odessa Law Academy of Kivalov.

“It is also noteworthy that Leonid Yemets, first deputy chairman of the VRU Committee on Legal Policy and Justice and long-time political opponent of Kivalov, has got the least number of points. This would have become a great surprise (Leonid is a highly competent and experienced lawyer), but for the fact that his work was checked by Yuriy Titov, member of the HQCJ and … godfather of Serhiy Kivalov’s child. According to different sources, Mr. Titov was an informal leader of the three members of the board which assessed the would-be judges of Administrative Court of Cassation. This might well explain the “specificity” of their assessment”, – wrote Zhernakov.

“It turns out that the godfather of Serhiy Kivalov’s child manages the assessment in the competition in which Kivalov’s assistant wins, and his opponents – lose”, – he added.

Zhernakov and other activists say that in order to clarify all the circumstances of the selection, it is necessary to publish the works of all candidates and assessment methodology of the High Qualification Commission of Judges.

As a reminder, in November 2016, the High Qualification Commission of Judges announced a competition for the positions of 120 judges in the new Supreme Court.

On September 30, changes to the Constitution regarding the justice and the new law On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges came into force. Therefore, a new Supreme Court will be created instead of the high specialized courts and all 200 judges will be selected by competition.