Anticorruption court updates as of May 26

On Monday, May 21, Rada Committee on Legal Policy and Justice adopted the draft law on the Anticorruption Court for the second reading. The Committee head Ruslan Kniazevych announced that agreements on most of the disputable issues were resolved, apart from a key one – crucial role of the international experts in the selection of judges. The negotiations with the IMF on the remaining issue started and aren’t yet finished.

In the meantime, on Wednesday May 23 Rada started to consider the draft law in the second reading, having passed 1273 out of 1927 amendments.

Poroshenko’s bloc MP Ivan Vinnyk gave a comment to journalists stating that: “Search for compromises goes on, but I am sceptical that the solution will be found, and this is not due to internal political situation in the country – we will handle it. This is due to the IMF using this situation as a pretext to postpone the next tranche for Ukraine. And the reason for that is the lack of understanding by the IMF of the [Ukraine’s] political conjuncture caused by the approaching of presidential and parliamentary elections.” Original text.

AntAC is confident that a binding role of the international experts panel in the selections of anticorruption court judges is a key safeguard and precondition to court’s independence and efficiency. We are grateful to the international partners for firm and strong support of the foreign experts’ crucial role in the selections process.

This is a key moment, and the mistake with an advisory role of the public council with no real influence in the course of the Supreme Court selections in no way should  be repeated with the Anticorruption Court. Just as a reminder, the High Qualification Commissions of Judges overruled 60% negative opinions of Public Integrity Council’s regarding candidates.

Read also Atlantic Council’s piece Poroshenko’s Game to Avoid Anti-Corruption Court Continues