One-third of court cases by independent prosecutors not reviewed, Parubiy says

Fifty out of 138 criminal cases submitted to Ukraine’s
courts by the independent National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption
Prosecution have not been reviewed at all, Parliamentary Speaker Andriy Parubiy
told a television talk show on June 8. Some cases have been lying in the courts
for a year and a half. Such a lack of judicial action is evidence of the need
for the High Anti-Corruption Court approved by parliament that day, he said. “I
am sure that next year, we will be witnesses to the first cases of this court,”
Parubiy said. “And believe me, this will be verdicts that all of Ukraine will
be proud of. These will be verdicts that will change our country.”

Another bill is needed to ensure the High
Anti-Corruption Court demanded by the IMF is functioning “physically and
legally,” MP Mustafa Nayyem told the hromadske.ua news site on June 8. “It’s impossible
to create the anti-corruption court without one more bill, which President
Poroshenko is supposed to submit,” Nayyem said. “This will be the marker of
whether he truly wants this court. I hope he submits it as soon as possible.”

Zenon Zawada: That as
many as a third of cases haven’t been reviewed at all by Ukraine’s decrepit
court system (let alone resulted in a criminal conviction) indicates that these
bodies – the national anti-corruption bureau and the specialized prosecution –
are ineffective without the independent anti-corruption court approved by
Ukraine’s parliament last week. Given the Poroshenko administration’s
resistance to it however, we believe that the saga of creating the independent
court has not concluded and numerous bureaucratic requirements and obstacles
can still surface, such as this other bill that Nayyem referred to. Recall,
Poroshenko himself even warned that Ukraine’s Constitution Court could even
determine the independent court to be invalid.