Ukraine judge detains Korban for two months

A Kyiv judge ruled on Dec. 29 to detain on bail for two months Hennadiy Korban, who faces criminal charges of forming an organized crime group, theft, and kidnapping. Korban was last detained following his arrest in late October but released on house arrest. Korban is a close political confidante to Igor Kolomoisky, among Ukraine’s biggest oligarchs who has an ongoing feud with President Petro Poroshenko. Korban said he would appeal the ruling.

The Ukrainian government is determining the judicial rulings regarding Korban, according to a Dec. 28 statement released by Kolomoisky. “The government has discredited its intentions to conduct judicial reforms with this process, and they don’t have to continue at this point,” the statement said. “Having not completed its declared cleansing of the judicial system, the government has held hostage all the judges of the country with threats, public discrediting, lustration, recertification and criminal persecution. To return trust to judicial reform, a constitutional commission must be urgently called, excluding from its participation officials and MPs. Everything has to begin anew, from a clean page.”

Zenon Zawada: Considering just how sensitive Korban’s case is, and considering how little Ukraine’s judicial and prosecution has been reformed, there can be little doubt that Poroshenko is directly managing Korban’s fate in the courts. Kolomoisky is also correct in stating that the government has discredited its intentions to conduct judicial reforms and that everything has to begin anew. Korban may be guilty of the crimes he accused of, but his prosecution is tainted by the lack of reform, for which Poroshenko himself was most responsible for. So the president needs to take a radically different approach in order to renew the little credibility he still has in this sphere.