The High Qualification Commission of Judges may recommend a lifetime appointment for judges who persecuted Maydan

On May 7 the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) will consider recommending a lifetime appointment for 98 judges. All these judges were appointed for the first 5-year term during Yanukovych presidency without any open competition; now they went through qualification assessment and the HQCJ is to decide whether they are fit for lifetime judicial positions.

Among those 98 are judges who issued politically motivated decisions against participants of the Revolution of Dignity and/or possess unjustified assets. Among such candidates are, for example:

  • Inna Belokonna, who possesses 3 luxurious apartments in Kyiv, a 410 square meters house near Kyiv and an Audi Q5, formally owned by a person living in a dormitory; these assets are not jusitified by official income of Belokonna. In addition, she is also a former wife to Andriy Portnov, who was in charge of judicial issues in the Presidential Administration of Yanukovych. She became a judge 9 months after his appointment;
  • Natalia Marfyna of Kyiv Dnipro district court, who confirmed as lawful actions of the traffic police against participants of the rally to Yanukovych’s residence during the Revolution. Traffic police then charged many of ralliers with non-existent traffic violations;
  • Anzor Saadylaev, who ruled to abolish driver’s licence of a participant of the same rally, as part of politically motivated mass effort to intimidate participants of the protest.

Within this round of qualification assessment the HQCJ interviewed as many as 694 judges (including respective 98)  in two weeks, which means 46 persons per day. Some interviews lasted only 5 minutes.

In addition, these 98 candidates were considered without participation of the Public Integrity Council, which suspended its activities after the HQCJ posed unlawful requirements towards its opinions. The PIC called for the HQCJ to suspend qualification assessment for a short time needed to reach consensus with the PIC towards the rules of cooperation. Despite this, the HQCJ scheduled final consideration of 98 candidates on the day before agreed mediation session with the PIC.