On August 2, 2018 the High Qualification Commission of Judges announced the call for applications for positions of the High Anticorruption Court (HACC) judges. Applications shall be accepted by September 14, 2018.

According to the decision of the High Council of Justice, there shall be 39 judges in the HACC, 27 as trial judges and 12 as appellate judges. The court shall become operational after 25 judges are appointed, 10 of whom shall be appellate judges.

While judges, scientists and attorney are eligible to apply for position of anticorruption judges, attorneys may find it burdensome to collect all documents for application package required by the High Qualification Commission of Judges. Namely, attorneys have to present certified copies of all judicial decisions, proving their participation in criminal cases for all seven years of required judicial experience. This requirement has been set forth by the HQCJ and it is not foreseen by the law. Attorneys claim this requirement to be over-complicated, as judicial decision mostly are kept by clients, not attorneys and receiving copies of decisions from courts is even more complicated due to poor administration of judicial records in courts themselves.

Therefore, non-judicial candidates to the HACC have justified concerns of repeating the case of non-judicial candidates to the Supreme Court, 45% of whom have been disqualified by the HQCJ due to failure to present judicial decision and some other required documents. In general, this may demotivate number of experienced attorneys from applying to the HACC.

As a result of coordination meeting with international donors on July 25, the High Qualification Commission of Judges informed it intended to wait until approximately September 15 for international organizations to present their nominations for members of the Council of International Experts (PCIE). This step deserves positive assessment.

However, should any one of eligible organizations present the HQCJ 12 nominees before other partners coordinate a joint list of nominations, the HQCJ will have a formal right to form the PCIE not waiting for other nominations. In this regard coordination among all international organizations that are asked to nominate experts is instrumental for ensuring that the best professional are nominated.

In the meantime, on August 2 the President of Ukraine has finally signed the law #4771 and the law was published on August 3. The law contains proper provisions on full transfer of pending NABU cases from trial and appellate courts to the HACC once it is established. The law also fixed the appeals issue of the law on the HACC, providing that after establishment of the HACC appeals on verdicts of regular courts in top corruption cases shall be filed to the HACC. Analysis of other provision of the law 7441 will be provided later.

In past week a wave of severe attacks and assassinations attempts went all over Ukraine, in which one person was killed, one got severe wounds and two more managed to stay intact. Almost all cases are this far showing both incapacity and continued lack of commitment of local law-enforcement bodies to investigate further attacks on activists.

In spring 2018 Oleshko was one of initiators of rallies for resignation of the Head of Zaporizhzhya regional state administration Kostiantyn Bryl. Also, Oleshko was reported by media to be in a sharp conflict with Oleksandr Ponomariov, the MP of Volia Narodu (emerged from the Opposition Block, former Party of Regions), who is said to have a wide control in Berdiansk.

medical condition, she was later urgently transferred to Kyiv for intensive care. Her relatives reported that her attacker had been chasing Kateryna for few days before committing an attack.   

Gandziuk is known for leading active civic campaign against separatist movements as well as for uncovering corruption among law-enforcement bodies, namely the head of the local department of National Police, dealing with economic crimes, in her city.

Notably, the National Police first qualified the attack on Gandziuk only as mere hooliganism. Such a qualification is legally incorrect and unacceptable. Only after the issue has been raised by national media and civic protests took place in Kherson and Kyiv, the case was qualified as both hooliganism and intentional causing of severe injuries.

While being in hospital in Kherson, Gandziuk refused to cooperate with local police, putting the blame of attacking her on them. Journalists also revealed, that on early stages of the investigation policeman failed to conduct most urgent investigative activities, necessary to identify and catch the attacker.

Attack on Mykhailo Kuzakon and Grigory Kozma, Odessa

On August 2, activists Mykhailo Kuzakon and Grigory Kozma were also attacked in Odessa. A truck hit a car activists were in, after which driver of the truck jumped out of his vehicle and escaped the place on a motorbike that was waiting for him. Luckily, activists were not hurt.

Grigoriy Kozma is a chief editor of internet media “Public investigation”, that published anticorruption investigations. Mykhailo Kuzakon also filed a number of crime investigation requests and claimed receiving threats with regards to these investigations.

The National Police opened a criminal investigation with qualification of assasination attempt. However, no suspects have been caught yet.

The case against her has been filed by the president of her court following her attempt to call upon judges not to reelect the judge of questionable independence as court president.

Judge Golnyk, who previously announced her intention to apply for position of anticorruption judge, is now deprived of this right. According to part 7 of the article 109 of the law on judiciary, a judge who has an unlifted disciplinary sanction in a form of reprimand is for one year period not eligible to participate in competition for judicial position in another court. Thus the High Council of Justice has a leverage of preventing unloyal judges from competing for positions of anticorruption judges.

Judge Golnyk is known for blowing a whistle on Poltava Mayor Oleksandr Mamai for allegedly trying to bribe her to close a corruption case against him in 2016. Following her going public on the issue, the judge has been suspended from performing justice by the head of Poltava Oktryabrsky District Court as well as attacked and physically harrassed in late 2017.

War on activists - the KyivPost editorial