Ukrainian judges demanded to open cases against Poroshenko, the heads of the NBU and the Ministry of Justice
Judges of the Kyiv Administrative Court panel, which ruled that the nationalization of PrivatBank was illegal, have appealed to the Chairman of the High Council of Justice (HCJ) with allegations of interference in their activities, as well as to the heads of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) with allegations of criminal violations, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
This was reported by the press service of the District Administrative Court of Kyiv.
“The judges ask to begin a pre-trial investigation against the head of state, the minister of justice and the chairman of the NBU, by entering relevant information into the ERDR, as a result of which the perpetrators will be brought to criminal responsibility. As the judges note in their statements, the state leadership, commenting on their decision to recognize the illegal nationalization of PrivatBank, made statements that are a direct threat to the judicial system of Ukraine, an encroachment on its independence and impartiality,” the statement says.
The judges believe that such actions by the president, the heads of the National Bank and the Ministry of Justice were carried out with the aim of putting pressure on the composition of the court and have signs of a crime under Part 2 of Article 376 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (interference in the activities of a judge in order to interfere with the performance of his official duties or to achieve a decision unjust decision made using official position).
In addition, the judges of the panel are convinced that the actions of government officials contain elements of a crime provided for in Part 1 of Article 109 of the Criminal Code, “since in fact they are aimed at usurping the judicial branch of power, establishing total control over it in order to subordinate it to their own will, which directly contradicts principles enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine."
The judges believe that the statements of top officials were aimed, in particular, at appealing to the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine (HQJC) without proper legal grounds for this, since they do not have such powers by law. The judges believe that these actions contain elements of a crime under Part 2 of Article 344 of the Criminal Code, in particular, illegal influence on a member of the Higher Qualification Committee in order to interfere with the performance of their official duties or to achieve the adoption of illegal decisions using their official position.
The judges also believe that when commenting on the decisions of judges, the executive and legislative branches “must avoid criticism that could undermine the independence of the judiciary or public confidence in it.” "They should also avoid actions that may call into question their willingness to comply with the judges' decision, unless they intend to appeal," it said.
In their statements, the judges ask to take real measures to protect them from the actions of the state leadership and to avoid the repetition of such cases in the future by contacting the State Bureau of Investigation with a statement about the commission of a crime by President Petro Poroshenko, Minister of Justice Pavel Petrenko and the head of the National Bank Yakov Smoliy, as well as filing before parliament on the issue of initiating impeachment proceedings of the current president.
In addition, the judges announced “a direct criminal order from President Petro Poroshenko to restart this court,” the press service of the capital’s administrative court reports.