Haste and candidates of low integrity: the election of the new President of the Supreme Council should be postponed

On Friday, May 26, at 10:00 a.m., the Plenum of the Supreme Court, apparently, is going to elect the new President of the Supreme Court. This poses several threats.

📌First of all, a very dangerous situation is emerging when the selection of the new President of the Court will be influenced by those involved in the corruption case of Vsevolod Knyazev because NABU and SAPO are still identifying all those involved. It is known that the money found during the search of the Great Chamber was divided into 13 packages. However, only Vsevolod Knyazev and lawyer Oleg Horetsky were noticed of suspicion. The names of other judges who may have been part of the scheme are still unknown to other judges of the Supreme Court or to the public.

📌It takes more time to find a worthy alternative to the discredited previous leadership of the Supreme Court. At present, among the candidates, there are those whose integrity is in doubt.

According to our information, among the applicants is one of the leaders of the “judicial mafia”, Stanislav Kravchenko, the head of the Criminal Court of Cassation within the Supreme Court. In 2011, he was a judge, and then, in 2014, the deputy head of the High Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases, which was created by the odious Andriy Portnov. In addition, in April 2017, the Public Integrity Council issued a conclusion about his non-compliance with the criteria of integrity and professional ethics. The reasons were the following:

• The judge was part of the panel that made a decision with violations of human rights, which was indicated by the ECtHR, and neglected to disclose this information this in the declaration of integrity.
• In the declarations for 2012-2014, the judge did not indicate ownership of the 900 square meter plot of land, which he owned since 2002. At the same time, there was a house on the specified plot, which was also not mentioned in the declarations for 2004, 2006, and 2009.

Another candidate, Natalia Kovalenko, is also interesting. She was involved in adopting a decision regarding the Rybalsky peninsula in Kyiv. As journalists report, the judge was a member of the panel of judges of the Administrative Court of Cassation within the Supreme Court, which established the legality of the construction on the peninsula. At the beginning of 2017, journalists reported that the ex-regional MP Nestor Shufrych and the ex-head of the State Committee for Enterprise Mykhailo Brodskyi were behind the construction on the Rybalsky peninsula. At the same time, the construction of high-rise buildings was being carried out with violations.

📌The hastily elected President of the Supreme Court will immediately take the oath of a member of the HCJ. Accordingly, he will be able to influence the final decision regarding the formation of the HQCJ.

Therefore, we believe that the meeting of the Plenum of the Supreme Court should be postponed. The law gives a month for the election of the new President from the moment of expressing no confidence in the previous one.