As part of the judicial reform every judge must be examined on basis integrity and competence. Those who failed such examination are subjects to be dismissed. The recommendation regarding dismissal is provided by the High Qualification Commission. Later the High Council of Justice dismisses.
In fact, the HQCJ does its best to recommend as few judges as possible to be dismissed. Of the more than 3,000 judges who were evaluated, the Commission recommended the dismissal of only 6%. But the High Council of Justice does not dismiss even this meager number of dishonest judges.
The most egregious case is consideration of appeal regarding dismissal of infamous judge of Kyiv District Administrative Court
Bogdan Sanin, who had banned the Maydan and untied hands of Berkut members during the Revolution of Dignity. The HQCJ recognized him as
not corresponding to the position held in April 2018.
After that he managed to be the subject of "Vovk's tape recordings", where his
voice together with judges Vovk, Arsiriy and Ablov regretted that he would not be able to make the decision against the HQCJ as he had no authority. Quote: "It is a pity that I don't have authority. It would be possible to screw them".
On December 19, 2019, the HCJ finally considered the appeal of the HQCJ and
refused to dismiss Sanin. The
reason for refusal was allegedly unmotivated decision of the HQCJ.
The
refusal of the HCJ to dismiss another Maydan judge Malinovska V.M., which was found dishonest by the HQCJ. During the Revolution of Dignity this judge
arrested the photographer Nuzhnenko, who was beaten by Berkut officers.
Judges, who clearly violated anti-corruption laws that even the HQCJ was forced to declare them dishonest, also avoided dismissals. Namely,
Stanislav Rychka, the judge of Zavodskyi Court in Kamyanske of Dnipropetrovsk region, and
Yevhen Bashmakov, the judge of Zhovtnevyi District Court of Dnipro region.
In total, the Qualification Commission sent 171 recommendations to the HCJ to dismiss incompetent and dishonest judges. For more than 1.5 years the HCJ has dismissed only 43 persons. Others have either completely avoided dismissal or resigned with large bonuses.
At the same time the HCJ delays time as much as possible. Appeals regarding more than 40 judges have not been considered so far. The HCJ tries to justify the delay by the fact that judges appeal the HQCJ's decision before the court. However, this position is illegal, as the law clearly foresees that the appeal of the HQCJ can be appealed only together with the decision of the HCJ. Moreover, the HCJ demonstrates double standards. Namely, in some cases the HCJ awaits the final court decision (for instance, regarding the judge
Karnaukh), and in others it considers the appeal before the court decision (for instance, regarding the judge
Gosudarskyi).
Dishonest judges do not waste time to delay considering appeals of the HQCJ. In summer 2019, investigators of the SBI
exposed the criminal scheme regarding cooperation between the judge of Olevsk District Court, the lawyer and the investigator of the local police department. They returned seized property for illegal gain to amber diggers by issuing the court decisions for certain fee. This judge is Stratovych Oleksandr Volodymyrovych, who
failed the exam in December 2018 and should have been dismissed long time ago. But the HCJ delayed the judge's dismissal. Finally, on September 12, 2019, he was
dismissed. And in April 2020, the SBI
handed over the suspicion to this honorary retiree.
The odious head of Dniprovskyi Court in Kyiv
Nelya Lastovka was also
resigned, although she was also declared
dishonest and had to be dismissed.
In total, almost 60 judges, whom the HQCJ has recommended to be dismissed for dishonesty or incompetence, honorably resigned thanks to the HCJ with the right of large lifetime allowance at the expense of budget, which may exceed 100,000 UAH per month.