During an emergency meeting on Sept. 29 the Ukrainian parliament voted to dismiss 29 out of 33 judges accused of violating their oaths.
Most of the judges fired had made unlawful rulings against EuroMaidan activists during the mass public protests of the winter of 2013-2014.
Meanwhile, President Petro Poroshenko on Sept. 29 fired Oksana Tsarevych, a controversial judge of Kyiv’s Pechersk Court who is currently on trial on charges of unlawfully prosecuting EuroMaidan activists.
But while succeeding in firing the discredited judges, the Verkhovna Rada failed to pass another key measure that is part of judicial reform – firing 778 judges whose five-year terms have already expired.
Speaker Andriy Parubiy declined to put the issue up for voting, despite the urging of several lawmakers. He claimed that the issue wasn’t in line with the specified agenda of parliament’s work for the day.
The High Council of Justice recommended dismissing most of the judges who violated their oaths about 10 months ago, but the Verkhovna Rada had delayed taking a decision on them. Lawmakers previously failed to vote on the decision during their last week of scheduled meetings, from Sept. 20 to Sept. 23.
Civic activists have accused the Poroshenko Bloc, including lawmaker Ruslan Knyazevych, of blocking the dismissal of the judges. Knyazevych did not respond to a request for comment.
Painful vote
When the judicial reform law that was passed in July comes into effect on Sept. 30, parliament will lose its right to fire judges. Experts urged the Verkhovna Rada to hold an emergency meeting to use their last chance to cleanse the judicial system.
Poroshenko addressed Parubiy on Sept. 27, urging him to hold a parliament meeting within the next two days and dismiss the judges. Parubiy immediately scheduled an emergency meeting for Sept. 29.
However, not all of the lawmakers managed to show up for the crucial vote – only 264 out of 423 lawmakers registered with their cards in the session hall on Sept. 29. The Poroshenko Bloc, the biggest faction in the parliament, was missing 38 members.
It took lawmakers four-and-a-half hours to dismiss the 29 judges – Parubiy had to put some of the rulings up for voting 15 times in a row to garner the 226 votes needed for them to pass.
Throughout the meeting, Parubiy often had to shout “Don’t leave,” “Get your colleagues into the session hall,” “Concentrate, please,” with many lawmakers wandering around the hall aimlessly, entering and leaving it.
Nevertheless, after the vote Parubiy praised the lawmakers for attending the session and “being able to reach an effective decision.”
“It proves once again that Ukrainian parliament is an outpost of the fight against corruption, and these corrupt judges did not have any chance that the rulings against them would fail to be supported,” he said at a briefing after the voting.
Sasha Drik, head of the Civic Lustration Committee, welcomed the dismissal of the judges, calling it “a good signal.” She added though that the most important thing was to follow the hiring process and make sure that the same people do not back into the judicial system.
Another problem still stands
But Vadym Miskyi, the head of the advocacy department at Reanimation Package of Reforms, a civil activism group, was disappointed that the lawmakers had failed to even consider the firing of the 778 judges whose terms have expired – most of whom have been accused of corruption and were appointed by fugitive ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukrainian judges are appointed for the job by the president for a five-year term. When the five years are over, it’s up to parliament to decide whether to keep the judge for a life term, or dismiss them.
Most of the 778 judges have been waiting for parliament’s decision for up to two years – without being able to actually work, but with their salary being paid and their status as judges retained.
During the meeting on Sept. 29, several lawmakers, including Yuriy Levchenko from the Svoboda party and independent lawmaker Hanna Hopko, urged Parubiy to include the issue on the meeting agenda.
Parubiy refused, saying that according to parliamentary regulations the Verkhovna Rada can’t vote during an emergency meeting for anything other than the initially specified issue.
“This is a complex problem,” Miskyi said. “Neither the president nor the responsible committee included this issue in the (emergency meeting) agenda. There wasn’t an engine for this process anywhere. But it should have been done.”
After Sept. 30, the High Council of Justice will instead decide whether to fire or appoint the 778 judges for life.
But Miskyi was skeptical that the judges would be fired, saying that one should hardly expect any extraordinary level of objectivity from the council.
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
