Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court voided the decision to dismiss three judges of the Kyiv Appellate Court, whom NABU and the SAP exposed for bribery. It is claimed that there were allegedly procedural violations during the consideration of their case.
The indicted Kyiv Appellate Court judges were not dismissed.
The Supreme Court overturned the Higher Council of Justice's decision to dismiss the defendants in a case whom anti-corruption bodies suspect of taking bribes. The situation around restoring the rights of judges exposed for corruption demonstrates serious gaps in the system of cleansing the government. This was stated by Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the Center for Anti-Corruption Action.
According to him, the overturn happened due to procedural violations. Specifically, it can be explained by the fact that the meeting was scheduled at a time inconvenient for the suspects, or their explanations were heard improperly.
The talk concerns Kyiv Appellate Court judges who took more than 100 thousand dollars. Despite their hot arrest while receiving 35 thousand dollars in bribes, the higher court found violations of the procedure when bringing them to account.
These Kyiv Appellate Court judges passed money to each other in bags with whiskey and coffee,
— clarified Shabunin.
Thus this case showed that in Ukraine, high corruption risks likely persist in the judicial system, where defending the interests of officials in robes often prevails over the principle of the inevitability of punishment. It also hampers Ukraine's international commitments to reform the judiciary.
Fuel
Average prices at the Amic Energy network of gas stations as of
What preceded it
Interesting details were shared by the prosecutor when one of the defendants' case was heard. In his apartment, supposedly, 115 thousand dollars were found, simply in coffee-packaging. At the same time, the suspects were concealing, which became noticeable when during a meeting one of them approached the cabinet and handed a colleague exactly a coffee bag with the words: “Very good coffee, instant, you once gave me some, so I’m giving you some now.”
The defendant himself said that not all the money found was his, but only 50 thousand. The rest allegedly belonged to his children, sister, and wife.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Судді "захищають" хабарників: у Центрі протидії корупції розповіли про резонансне рішення". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Channel 24.