Activists urge judges’ congress not to vote for dubious candidates

The lawyers, experts, and activists held the protest action near the October Palace in Kyiv, demanding not to allow candidates to the positions of judges of the Constitutional Court and the judicial self-government bodies – the Council of Judges of Ukraine and the High Qualification Commission of Ukraine.

This is reported by the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent from the protest action.

The experts of the Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR) analyzed the lists of candidates and indicate the data which discredit the title of judge.

“We do not want to blame anyone, but there are some data showing that the candidates are not trustworthy, and some of them are associated with infamous personalities, so we call on the congress of judges not to vote for them,” RPR expert Mykhailo Zhernakov said.

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According to director of the lustration department at the Justice Ministry of Ukraine Tetiana Kozachenko, the congress of judges will hear the report of the High Council of Justice (HCJ) and head of the Council of Judges of Ukraine Valentyna Symonenko on the cleansing of judicial power.

“The fact that among the congress delegates are such judges as Oksana Tsarevych, who has been dismissed from office by the High Qualification Commission of Ukraine, and judges of the Constitutional Court Natalia Shaptala and Mykhailo Zaporozhets, who delivered judgments regarding usurpation of power by Yanukovych, shows the cleansing in this branch of government,” Tetiana Kozachenko noted.

She pointed out that, for example, the judicial administration was still headed by Zinoviy Holodniuk, who, according to the law on lustration, had no right to hold this office. The Council of Judges of Ukraine does not want to dismiss him, Tetiana Kozachenko said.

“One of the candidates is judge of the Supreme Administrative Court Volodymyr Butenko. On October 20, 2015, he introduced the period of limitation on violation of the oath by a judge when committing some offence. This means that this judge granted the indulgence to all the judges, who had committed crimes not only against Euromaidan, but also any violation of the oath at the time when the Supreme Council of Justice did not work for a year,” Tetiana Kozachenko reminded.

The experts call on the judges not to vote for candidate Pavlo Hvozdyk, as there are doubts in honesty of this judge.

The RPR experts note that the candidate for the post of the Constitutional Court judges for long time headed the Council of Judges of General Courts, used by the Administration of President Viktor Yanukovych to appoint the loyal heads of the general courts.

Another candidate, Kostyantyn Babenko, does not disclose the information about the assets of members of the family in the tax return, which also gives the experts reason to question the honesty of the judge.