District Administrative Court may return questionable candidates in the competition to the High Anti-Corruption Court

Taras Zayets, vetoed by international experts candidate to the High Anti-Corruption Court, tries to invalidate the ban. He wants to return to the competition as well.

This became known from the judicial authority portal. Taras Zayets filed two lawsuits to scandalous District Administrative Court of Kyiv.

The first lawsuit concerns the abolition of rules of procedure of the Public Council of International Experts (PCIE), and the second regards the decision of the PCIE to initiate the veto regarding the candidate.

On February 8, the judge of District Administrative Court of Kyiv Lyubov Marulina decided to consider the lawsuit regarding the abolition of the PCIE’s rules of procedure.

In case of the abolition of the PCIE’s rules of procedure, not only Zayets but all questionable candidates, which were vetoed by the PCIE, will be able to apply for positions of the anti-corruption judges.

“The result of abolition of rules of procedure of the Public Council of International Experts will be the destruction of results of independent international experts’ work during months”, said Olena Shcherban, the head of the legal department at the Anti-Corruption Action Center.

“If the court cancels all rules, this will automatically mean the illegitimacy of the PCIE’s work and will cancel all decisions made according to these rules. This is something like the “domino principle”. When one brick falls and the whole mechanism is destroyed. As the result of abolition of the PCIE’s rules of procedure, all decisions made by the PCIE on initiation of the veto regarding candidates could be considered invalid. Therefore, unfair and unprofessional candidates may return to the competition”, added Shcherban.

District Administrative Court appointed the first meeting regarding the case on March 13, 2019.

We should recall that thanks to the work of the Public Council of International Experts 42 questionable candidates, or almost 40%, out of 113 who had successfully passed tests earlier, were excluded from the competition to the High Anti-Corruption Court.

The judge of Svyatoshyn District Court of Kyiv Taras Zayets, who took part in “Maydan cases”, is among vetoed candidates. In February 2014, he chose the preventive measure in the form of detention regarding the participant of mass protests. However, he did not submit this in his declaration of integrity in 2016.

District Administrative Court, which is considering lawsuits of the judge Zayets, is known for odious decisions regarding the suspension from duties of the Minister Ulana Suprun, the reinstating the head of the State Fiscal Service Roman Nasirov, the prohibition of Maydan and numerous indulgences regarding subjects of NABU cases.

In the framework of the judicial reform, no judge was dismissed from District Administrative Court of Kyiv despite the fact that most judges are subjects of numerous scandals in the media regarding the existence of unjustified assets.

Moreover, later on three more candidates who were vetoed, also appealed to the Supreme Court on the same issue.