Closing Stage of the Supreme Court Competition – update as of Sept 8

The High Council of Justice announced that it will start considering candidates for the new Supreme Court on September 14 and plans to finish by September 25. The HCJ informed that it will follow its regular procedure for consideration of candidates on judicial positions. Participation of the Public Integrity Council is not guaranteed.

As we stated earlier, we are concerned that out of 120 finalists, as many as 30 received negative opinions of the Public Integrity Council and do not meet the criteria of integrity and professional ethics. Another serious concern is that a number of members of the HCJ have conflicts of interests (their profiles are available here). In particular, among 120 finalists of the Supreme Court competition two are active members of the HCJ: Alla Lesko and Alla Oliynyk. Moreover, in August 2017, Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine handed to a member of the HCJ Pavlo Hrechkivsky an indictment of attempting to commit a fraud in a particularly large amount.

We call on the High Council of Justice to thoroughly examine candidates and refuse submission to the President of those 30 candidates who do not comply with the criteria of integrity and professional ethics and whose appointment can undermine public the trust to Ukraine’s judiciary.

We also call on the members of the HCJ who have conflict of interest and criminal charges against them to abstain from taking decisions regarding the finalists of the Supreme Court.