Yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed 28 judges by a series of decrees (№ 610, 611, 612, 613, 614 of December 1). 27 of them - for positions in local courts of the first instance and 1 judge in the Commercial Court of Donetsk region. However, the vast majority of those appointed did not pass the qualification assessment.
“The law stipulates that a judge who has received a negative opinion of the Public Integrity Council is not considered to have passed the qualification assessment until a decision on it is made by the High Qualification Commission of Judges. The HQCJ may support the decision of the Public Integrity Council or overcome it by 11 votes.
Most of the newly appointed judges did not pass the qualification assessment, as they received a negative opinion of the PIC, which the HQCJ did not consider or revoke.”
- comments Stepan Berko, Advocacy Manager of the DEJURE Foundation
The following is a complete list of the judges with the links to the negative opinions of the Public Integrity Council in regard to them (in Ukrainian):
- Koval Andriy
- Diachenko Dmytro
- Kucheriava Oksana
- Shelyukhovsky Mykola
- Dubovenko Iryna
- Reshetnyak Igor
- Zabolotny Andriy
- Klyuchnyk Andriy
- Biziaeva Nadiia
- Oliynyk Maksym
- Kukhlenko Dmytro
- Svitlychny Roman
- Tsurkan Vitaliy
- Zaruba Petro
- Sirak Dmytro
- Shkamerda Kateryna
- Koval Roman
- Skotar Roman
- Shevska Olena
- Kapitonov Yevhen
- Ratushenko Oleksandr
“Despite the fact that the law requires the President to appoint all those recommended by the HCJ as judges, I believe that the President should refrain from any appointments until the integrity check of the current HCJ is completed and a new HQCJ is formed. After all, it makes no sense to initiate the HCJ reform because of doubts in regard to its integrity and to appoint as judges persons recommended by such a council with serious violations of the law.”
- summarizes Stepan Berko.