Photo: Head of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Knyazev (Alexander Khomenko / hromadske)
Chairman of the Supreme Court Vsevolod Knyazev said that the words of the Deputy Head of the Office of the President Andriy Smirnov about the list of candidates for the positions of members of the High Council of Justice approved by the Ethics Council could damage the judicial reform in Ukraine. Smirnov replied that the quality of the candidates was questioned not only by him, but also by anti-corruption organizations.
This is reported RBC-Ukraine with reference to Knyazev in an interview hromadske.
So, Knyazev meant a comment Smirnov on November 13 last year, where he said: “If the Ethics Council, chaired by the current judge of the SC, elects 16 people as candidates for the PRP, 7 of whom are current judges of the same SC, and this is perceived by society, then everything is in order”.
According to Knyazev, such statements were negatively perceived by the judicial community. Moreover, they could become the reason for the non-election of new members of the PRP at the Congress of Judges.
“If our European integration task was to form the High Council of Justice, and one of the leaders of the OP actually criticizes those stages of the process that are laid down in the reform of the Supreme Court of Justice, it demotivates judges to participate in the congress, to elect new members of the Supreme Court of Justice“, – said the chairman of the Supreme Court.
He also added that, ultimately, this could be the reason for the failure of the formation of the High Council of Justice and the failure to fulfill the second European integration requirement in the list of requirements sent by the European Commission. Such actions the head of the Armed Forces regarded as “more than destructive.”
Knyazev drew attention to the fact that not all of the seven judges of the Supreme Court received the support of the congress of judges and became members of the Supreme Court. But the decisive voice in the work of the Ethics Council, as noted by the Chairman of the Supreme Court, is international partners.
In turn, Andrei Smirnov answered us in a comment that the work of the Ethics Council was criticized by anti-corruption organizations such as the Anti-Corruption Center or DEJURE. He also drew attention to the key points through which society can question the work of the Ethics Council, says Smirnov.
“It is very annoying to realize that we have different understandings of judicial reform and European integration. The reform is moving and will move even more actively. I emphasize that the work of all advisory bodies, including the Ethics Council, must be built solely on trust in these bodies.”, – he said. .
The deputy head of the OP also confirmed that he made such a comment on November 13, 2022 and “moreover, he told the G7 ambassadors who were interested in the results and effectiveness of the work of the Ethics Council.”
“It is also impossible not to notice that already after the decision of the Ethics Council regarding the candidates for the Supreme Court of Justice, the most active public organizations involved in the examination of the judicial reform publicly questioned the quality of the candidates. But it’s already there. Self-improvement should not stop. In general, the Congress of Judges ended, and the judges were able to elect 8 members of the Supreme Court of Justice”Smirnov summed up.
Recall that November 9, 2021 was formed the composition of the Ethics Council, which shall determine whether a candidate for the position of a member of the High Council of Justice meets the criteria of professional ethics and virtue.
The Supreme Court of Justice is a collegiate and independent body of judicial management, consisting of 21 members. Ten of them are elected at the Congress of Judges of Ukraine among current or retired judges.
The head of the Supreme Court accuses the deputy head of the OP
Two members each are elected by the President, the Verkhovna Rada, the Congress of Advocates, the All-Ukrainian Conference of Prosecutors, and the Congress of Representatives of Law Schools and Scientific Institutions. The Supreme Court also includes the Chairman of the Supreme Court.
The High Council of Justice will appoint members of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges (HQJC) elected for a period of four years based on the results of a competition.
The HQCJ, in turn, will be engaged in the selection of new and recertification of existing judges. The law provides that the HQCJ should be composed of 16 members, and eight of them will be chosen from judges or retired judges.
