Four Ukrainian judges placed on leave pending investigations

Four Kyiv district judges responsible for controversial rulings during the Yanukovych administration were placed on leave for two months by a Kyiv governing body on March 10 pending criminal investigations, reported the Ukrinform news agency. Ukraine’s parliament voted on March 4 to remove personal immunity from these judges.

Viktor Kytsiuk and Svitlana Volkova are accused of illegal rulings against Maidan protesters, as well as participating in the allegedly false criminal charges against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the murder of Donetsk businessman Yevhen Shcherban. Serhiy Vovk and Oksana Tsarevych were the judges in the abuse of authority charges against former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, for which he was convicted and imprisoned.  

Zenon Zawada: Following the arrest of a handful of high-profile politicians, the Ukrainian government is now making progress on targeting some of Kyiv’s most controversial judges. Certainly, it’s a big step in cleaning out Ukraine’s corrupt courts. However, what the government will need to convince the world of its intentions to address corruption is criminal convictions of crooked judges, as well as a consistent campaign to further convict and evict judges on the local level, which will raise the confidence of average citizens in the state as well.