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HOT ANTICORRUPTION NEWS / Issue #174
April 19, 2021
  
Today's issue:
 
- President initiates liquidation of the notorious Kyiv District Administrative Court;
- MPs want to weaken AML regulation of politically exposed persons;
- Parliament secretly changes the law on Constitutional Court to greenlight political appointees;
- Investigation of Rotterdam+ case has been restored;
- recommended reading
President initiates liquidation of the notorious Kyiv District Administrative Court

President Zelenskyi initiated the liquidation of the notorious Kyiv District Administrative Court. According to the analysis of the submitted draft laws, the KDAC shall cease its work and it must transfer all cases within 10 working days to the regional administrative court, which will consider them until the establishment of a new court.

Liquidation also means loss of powers for the KDAC’s judges, but they will not be automatically dismissed and will retain the status of judges until they pass qualification vetting. 
The move to liquidate the KDAC is supported by the leading CSOs in the field of anti-corruption and judiciary.
MPs want to weaken AML regulation of politically exposed persons
On April 14, the Financial Committee recommended draft law No. 4218 for the voting in the first reading. The draft law envisages amending anti-money laundering legislation by limiting the term of determining politically exposed persons for one year after dismissal. This will destroy financial control over operations of top officials. The draft law was initiated by Sergiy Vlasenko, Member of Parliament from the Batkivshchyna faction. 
Parliament secretly changes the law on Constitutional Court to greenlight political appointees
On April 14, the Parliament adopted new requirements for the position of a judge of the Consitution Court. For now, the appointee has to relinquish the powers of MP only after the appointment to the position not prior to it (e.g., prior voting in the Parliament). The respective provisions were secretly added to draft law No.4535 regulating the status of the village heads. Allegedly, it was done to allow the appointment of MP Sovgyria for the vacant position of Constitutional Court judge.
Investigation of Rotterdam+ case has been restored
Deputy head of SAPO Maksym Gryshchuk for the second time revoked the decision of prosecutor Ponomarenko to close the case Rotterdam+. The NABU once again called on PG Iryna Venediktova to replace Ponomarenko in the case as a leading prosecutor because he shows bias, refuses to move forward with indictements and blocks further investigation. According to the NABU, the case is ready to be transferred to the court for a trial.
Recommended Reading 
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Should you have any questions or comments please contact Tetiana Shevchuk at tshevchuk@antac.org.ua

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