Complaints against judges' actions were filed to the HCJ by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) and the Anti-Corruption Action Center. Judges of Malynovskyi District Court of Odesa Serhiy Cherevko, Dmytro Perederko and Viktor Koroy committed
gross violations during the trial of Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov, and finally made the
acquittal. These violations may indicate that such acquittal was prepared in advance.
However, the HCJ even
refused to initiate the disciplinary proceeding to properly assess judges' actions. Members of the HCJ
explained the refusal by the fact that the case is already being heard by the Chamber of Appeal of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court, which has to check violations regarding decision of Malynovskyi Court of Odesa. However, judges of the Anti-Corruption Court cannot punish colleagues for disciplinary violations, because this is the function of the HCJ.
We should remind that in 2016 Odesa City Council headed by Trukhanov
bought premises of former plant Krayan 43 times more expensively, than it had been bought by the "bubble company" 3 months before. Losses to the state amounted 92 million UAH.
Moreover, the HCJ also
refused to punish judges of scandalous KDAC who had declared the nationalization of Privatbank illegal. The decision was made in April 2019 by KDAC judges Igor Kachur, Volodymyr Keleberda and Vitaliy Amelyokhin. Journalists who received text of the decision from their own sources
question its quality and state about judges' bias in favor of bank's former owners. The HCJ should
evaluate judges' actions in the view of significant public response that this decision had caused. However, the HCJ even refused to initiate the disciplinary proceeding considering the Privatbank case.