The first day of the Congress of Judges: 5 members of the HCJ were elected

Today, the Congress of Judges elected five members of the HCJ: Yuliya Bokova, Alla Kotelevets, Hryhoriy Usyk, Oleksandr Sasevych and Olha Popikova. Unfortunately, the public had questions for each of them. Information about the newly elected members of the HCJ can be found here. For example, Bokova visited the occupied Crimea, Kotelevets should have been released on the recommendation of the HQCJ in 2012, and Sasevych appeared in the BIHUS.Info investigation about voting for pre-agreed candidates at judicial congresses.

However, such a pace gives hope for the willingness of the judges to elect eight members of the High Council of Justice, as the public and international partners called for. A second round will be held tomorrow, during which the delegates will try to elect three more members of the HCJ. The judges Bondarenko, Burlakov, Hudyma, Kostenko, Himon and Kovbiy proceeded to the second round of voting. We hope that the most decent ones from this list will be chosen.

However, the presence of Serhiy Burlakov in this list is disturbing since he:
– repeatedly visited the territory of the Russian Federation after the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s occupation of parts of Ukrainian territories;
– is closely related to the family of the well-known Kharkiv businessman Oleksandr Feldman (in the 9th convocation of the Parliament, he was a member of the faction of the already banned “Opposition Platform – For Life” party)
– had a mismatch in property declarations.

The appointment of such a candidate as a member of the HCJ will jeopardise the operation of the key judicial governance body and public trust in it.