Igor Benedisyuk: where is pocket judge Poroshenko running? PART 1

The head of the High Council of Justice, Igor Benedisyuk, decided not to renew his membership in this body and hastily resigned. Has he really become another rat quickly abandoning Poroshenko’s sinking ship? Or, in this case, are we seeing a planned evacuation of the most trusted representatives of the presidential “family”, who are being moved to other key posts? After all, Benedisyuk is now preparing to take a judicial chair in the Economic Court of Cassation, which is part of the Supreme Court of Ukraine. He handed over the position of chairman of the Supreme Council to his successor, Vladimir Govorukha, another Poroshenko protege, who, like Benedisyuk, comes from the military court system.

Until now, Igor Benedisyuk was almost unknown to Ukrainians, and appeared in the news columns only twice. First, because of a clash with activists of the “Tradition and Order” movement, whom he drove away by shooting from an award pistol, and then as a judge, who received almost 3 million hryvnia in salary in a year. Well, let’s try to find out more about him…

Hybrid citizenship

Benedisyuk Igor Mikhailovich was born on December 12, 1965 in the village of Velikiy Lug, Krasnoarmeysky district (now Pulinsky) of the Zhitomir region. His biography contains many interesting “gaps”, and the first of them is the question, what did he do after graduating from school? The fact is that Benedisyuk graduated from the Soviet secondary 10-year school in the summer of 1983 (provided that he entered it in 1973), and began his work history as a driver of the Novograd-Volynsky district veterinary department in January 1984. It would seem, so what – but Benedisyuk was a country guy, not a city major, and among village people it was not customary to idle for six months. However, this is the most innocent of the mysteries of his biography.

In May 1984, Benedisyuk served in the ranks of the Soviet army, the service in which he was so fascinated that after it he immediately entered the Military Institute of the USSR Ministry of Defense, where they trained military lawyers, or rather, judges for military tribunals. And so in the summer of 1991, just before the collapse of the Union, young graduate Igor Benedisyuk went on assignment to the ends of the earth, all the way to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, where he became a member of the local military tribunal, and after its reorganization – a judge of the fifth class of the 37th military court of the Far Eastern Military districts of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism). Where he worked until April 4, 1994, as evidenced by extracts from the relevant documents. As you can see, Benedisyuk was not in too much of a hurry to return to his native Ukraine, although he had such an opportunity since 1992!

And yet there would be nothing reprehensible in this, if not for a few “buts”. Firstly, since 1992, service in the Russian army, and even more so promotion, would have been impossible without obtaining Russian citizenship. This does not mean that Benedisyuk received a Russian passport, because until the end of the 90s, many Russians continued to use the old Soviet ones. After all, a passport is only an identity document issued to a citizen, that is, you can be a citizen without receiving a passport. Moreover, Benedisyuk could have received a Russian passport even after 1994 (and can still do so), because no one has taken away his Russian citizenship until now.

But, secondly, Benedisyuk himself categorically denied that he had Russian citizenship. In particular, when in 2018, a member of the Ukrainian Public Council of Virtue (it turns out we also have one) Roman Maselko filed a corresponding disciplinary complaint against Benedisyuk. And here the most interesting thing began, because a lawyer-judge with 28 years of experience began making ridiculous excuses, like a juvenile hooligan. Like, I don’t know, I don’t remember, I didn’t receive it!

Benedisyuk also tried to justify himself by appealing to the agreement between the CIS countries of February 14, 1992, according to which military personnel discharged from military service retained the citizenship of the republic from whose territory they were drafted into the ranks of the Soviet army. However, this agreement applied only to those resigning, and was adopted for those who wanted to return to their homeland and obtain its citizenship. According to him, Benedisyuk himself should have “automatically” received Ukrainian citizenship – but only after leaving the Russian army. In the period 1992-94. he served in the Russian army, which means he received Russian citizenship.

Thirdly, although Igor Mikhailovich’s service in the Russian army continued until April 4, 1994 (see document), he somehow managed to simultaneously start working in the Military Court of the Kyiv Garrison on February 24 of the same year. That is, to simultaneously serve in both the Russian and Ukrainian armies! This simply doesn’t fit in one’s head: it would be nice if some crafty warrant officer had “stirred it up”, but Benedisyuk was a military judge, a lawyer – and then this man became the chairman of the Supreme Court.

In addition, the question arises: doesn’t he still serve both Kyiv and Moscow? Against the backdrop of the political conflict between Ukraine and Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), and the endless statements of Poroshenko’s team about a “hybrid war,” it was precisely such “double-dealers” who were the first to come under suspicion of working for the Kremlin. But Petro Poroshenko himself appointed him to the post of head of the VSP! Maybe under someone’s patronage? Whose? But this is another mystery, because Benedisyuk’s patrons remained in the shadows.

Fourthly, the secrecy that shrouds Igor Benedisyuk’s past is incomprehensible. Although some documents related to his career were published and discovered Skelet.Infothe main information turned out to be carefully erased, as if deliberately destroyed. For example, in 2017, the public organization “Automaidan” submitted official requests to the Supreme Court of Justice, as well as to the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine (HQJC) about whether Igor Benedisyuk received Ukrainian citizenship at all? It would seem that the question is absurd – after all, how else would he have worked as a judge in Ukraine for twenty years! But so, after all, he began working as a judge of the Kyiv garrison while still a citizen of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) and without Ukrainian citizenship (he continued to serve in the Russian army). So this really required documentary clarification. However, the official responses received, to put it mildly, were very surprising: the VSP and VKKS responded that they did not have such information.

But social activists did not let up, and a year later the question of Benedisyuk’s citizenship was raised by the aforementioned Roman Maselko. In response to his VKKS request in February 2019 had a “conversation” with Benedisyuk, and based on his verbal answers (that he does not know, does not remember, did not receive), Maselko refused his complaint – they say that everything is in order with Igor Benedisyuk’s citizenship!

Let’s emphasize: in the summer of 2017, the Higher Qualification Court officially announced that Benedisyuk’s judge’s dossier did not contain the requested information about his citizenship. And in February 2019, the same VKKS, having never received the necessary information, only based on an oral response from the head of the Supreme Court, issued a not guilty verdict to him. This is a vivid example of what “justice” is like in post-Maidan Poroshenko Ukraine! By the way, how are the members of the VKKS going to explain themselves now for this incident? Or do they hope it will be forgotten?

Patrons secret and obvious

Igor Benedisyuk worked as a judge of the Kyiv garrison until 2000. It was impossible to call his work unprofitable, because in addition to criminal cases of deserters, “grandfathers” and thieving managers, the military court had jurisdiction over economic issues regarding the property of the Ministry of Defense. After all, the Kyiv garrison was in charge of many military units with extensive and expensive real estate, part of which was alienated and sawed up in the second half of the 90s! From which some interesting assumptions can be made, but it is not yet possible to confirm them, since information on Benedisyuk is missing (or destroyed) even about his citizenship.

But in 2000, Benedisyuk’s career, as they say, took off sharply: he received a position as a judge in the Commercial Arbitration Court of Kyiv. And this was already a frankly bread-and-butter place! However, Benedisyuk went further: in November 2001, he became a judge of the Kyiv Economic Court of Appeal, whose jurisdiction extended to the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Cherkassy regions (since 2018 it was reformed into the Northern Economic Court of Appeal). But Benedisyuk did not stay there long, and in June 2003 he moved to the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine, where he worked for the next 12 years. Again, have Skelet.Info There is also no information about his diligent fifteen-year service in economic courts. But Ukrainians are well aware that the “honest judge of the economic court” is practically a joke.

However, the question is different: who contributed to the fact that the military judge of the Kyiv garrison received a transfer to the capital’s economic court, and three years later assigned him to the Higher Economic Court? After all, even then, at the beginning of the 2000s, positions in such courts could only be either purchased for very large sums of money (hundreds of thousands of dollars) or obtained through very influential patronage.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUED: Igor Benedisyuk: where is pocket judge Poroshenko running? PART 2

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