HOT ANTICORRUPTION NEWS / Issue #114
September 6, 2019
|
|
|
Today's issue:
- how to assess Zelensky’s anti-corruption moves?
- judicial reform: effective oversight over judicial self-governance bodies is needed;
- a register of failures of the High Council of Justice;
- the Anticorruption Court is launched, the bill on its jurisdiction still to be adopted;
- Prosecutor General appointed the first deputy and fired scandalous chief military prosecutor;
- activists urge the Parliament to launch a temporary investigative commission into attacks against activists
|
|
|
How to assess Zelensky’s anti-corruption moves?
|
|
|
On August 29, President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, a number of draft laws. They are aimed at closing anti-corruption loopholes and fixing previous mistakes. The bills improve criminal code procedures and empower the National Anti-Corruption Bureau,
|
|
|
|
fix the jurisdiction of the High Anticorruption Court, introduce civil forfeiture and criminalize illicit enrichment, relaunch the National Agency for Corruption Prevention, and kick off a long-awaited cleansing of the prosecutor’s office. Most of these initiatives correspond with Ukrainian civil society organizations’ agenda for justice. See the full text of our analysis.
On Friday, September 6, Rada committees considered and approved for voting in the first reading and in full the following draft laws:
- #1031 on illicit enrichment and civil forfeiture;
- #1009 on amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code (MPs postponed enactment of the limitation of investigative actions regarding MPs to January 1, 2020);
- #1025 on the jurisdiction of the High Anticorruption Court;
- #1029 on the relaunch of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (MPs extended the timeline for holding the competition to 60 days and defined that all decisions of the selection panel have to be made given that all three foreign experts vote in favour).
Consideration of the draft laws #1008 on judicial self-governance bodies and on the prosecutor's office was postponed.
|
|
|
Judicial reform: effective oversight over judicial self-governance bodies is needed
|
|
|
Five NGOs welcome the President’s initiative to restart the High Qualifications Commission of Judges (HQCJ) and to involve international experts in the process. At the same time, the positive trends can be offset by significant shortcomings present in the law draft.
The draft law #1008, proposed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, provides for a complete renewal of composition of the HQCJ and gives a key role to the international experts in this process.
|
|
|
|
It also provides for a mechanism to control the incumbent members of the HQCJ and the High Council of Justice (HCJ). Thus, it is proposed to create an Ethics Commission made of 3 international experts and 3 HCJ members. The task of the commission is to monitor the integrity of the members of the HQCJ and the HCJ. If facts of misconduct are revealed, the Ethics Commission will be able to initiate the dismissal of such member. However, the final decision is to be made by the HCJ by a simple majority of votes.
For the Ethics Commission to be effective, the role of international experts should be strengthened as it was during the selection of judges for the High Anti-Corruption Court. Therefore, we propose the minimal necessary changes:
– to provide for the international experts to have a majority (4 out of 6) in the Ethics Commission;
– to establish the rule whereby an Ethics Commission’s initiative to dismiss a HCJ / HQCJ member failing to meet integrity principles may be rejected by two-thirds of votes of a special joint meeting of HCJ members and international experts, provided that at least two international experts support such decision
We urge the MPs to initiate and adopt the corresponding amendments to the draft law #1008. Full text of the statement and other details.
|
|
|
Civil activists released a register of
High Council of Justice failures
|
|
|
|
On September 4, CSOs DEJURE Foundation, AutoMaidan and the AntAC released the “Register of the High Council of Justice Failures” (now available only in Ukrainian). It is a collection of cases when judges were put under pressure for disobeying the politicized system and impunity of those who actually put pressure on judges. This is the most striking evidence in favour of the fact that the judicial branch of power will never be truly independent without the HCJ reboot. More details.
|
|
|
The Anticorruption Court is launched,
the bill on its jurisdiction still to be adopted
|
|
On September 5, the High Anticorruption Court started its operations. As a reminder of who should be praised for this result, please, see our February article "How Ukraine builds its anti-corruption court".
|
|
|
We wish anticorruption judges to stand firm and strong against any temptation and deliver long-awaited justice!
However, we would still want to remind that the Rada has to adopt the draft law which will fix HACC jurisdiction. Background information about the issue. The draft law #1025 was voted by the Anticorruption Committee on September 6, and recommended for the plenary to be adopted in the first reading and in full.
|
|
|
Prosecutor General appointed the first deputy and fired scandalous chief military prosecutor
|
|
|
Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka appointed a lawyer, former Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaliy Kasko as the First Deputy Prosecutor General. Kasko served in the PGO in 2014-2016 and conducted a number of headline cases.
We wish Kasko good luck!
|
|
|
Riaboshapka fired chief military prosecutor Anatoliy Matios. Earlier, Matios hid asset declarations of military prosecutors. We challenged this decision, but judges of the notorious District Administrative Court of Kyiv took his side.
Nashi Groshi collected information about questionable cases, prosecuted by Matios and his subordinates (in Ukrainian).
|
|
|
|
Activists urge the Parliament to launch a temporary investigative commission into attacks against activists
|
|
|
27 CSOs call upon the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 9th convocation to create the Temporary Investigation Commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in order to investigate information concerning the murder of Kateryna Handziuk and attacks on other civil activists.
|
|
|
|
In 2017-2018, an unprecedented series of attacks on civil activists swept over the country. The public has collected data on the most violent attacks and murders since 2017. This is the so-called "Handziuk List" - 55 cases of assault, including 5 murders. On November 6, 2018, two days after Kateryna Handziuk’s death, a Temporary Investigation Commission of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was set up at the request of civil society to investigate information on the attacks on Kateryna Handziuk and other civil activists. The commission lasted 6 months. During this time, the commission sent inquiries to law enforcement agencies of Ukraine regarding 55 attacks on public activists, heard a number of law enforcement officers, held 3 field meetings in Kherson, Odesa and Kharkiv.
Due to the existence of the TIC, attacks on civic activists were under constant parliamentary oversight, which helped to minimize the risk of their investigation being buried by the investigative bodies.
The TIC report, approved by the Verkhovna Rada in July 2019, noted the shortcomings and failures of law enforcement agencies in investigating attacks against civic activists.
However, law enforcement drew no conclusions from the TIC report. The perpetrators of these attacks are still at large, none of those responsible for sabotaging the investigation of these attacks has been held accountable, and the victims have by no means unfounded fears that these cases will soon be simply closed. Only active scrutiny by the parliament will help to avoid these risks and bring the investigation of attacks on public activists to a logical conclusion - punishing all those who ordered the crimes!
In view of the above, we call upon parliamentary factions of the Verkhovna Rada of the 9th convocation to establish a new Temporary Investigation Commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to investigate information on attacks on Kateryna Handziuk and attacks on other public activists with a 1 year mandate!
|
|
|
|
|
