Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych held face-to-face discussions on Feb. 14 with Chairman of Ukraine’s Supreme Court Vasyl Onopenko, who cried foul last week about the lack of independence of Ukraine’s judiciary system and the resurgence of political persecution.
The results of the Feb. 14 meeting, which was announced by the president’s press service, are not yet clear. But both were expected to discuss concerns Onopenko raised in a recent Kyiv Post interview.
Speaking with the Kyiv Post last week, Onopenko said he demanded a meeting with Yanukovych to discuss his concerns.
During the Kyiv Post interview, Onopenko criticized last year’s judicial reforms saying they disrupted the balance in the nation’s judiciary system.
Since Viktor Yanukovych took over as Ukraine’s president one year ago, he has systematically monopolized most levers of power in the country by putting loyalists in charge of all branches of government.
The only major exception is one of the most influential positions in Ukraine’s judiciary branch, the seat Onopenko currently holds: chief justice of Ukraine’s Supreme Court.
Onopenko was elected to the position nearly five years ago when he was a political ally of current opposition leader and ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Last year, Yanukovych’s governing coalition tried to undercut the Supreme Court’s influence by adopting legislation that sharply cuts its authority.
But the move drew strong protest from the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters.
The commission is pressuring Yanukovych’s governing coalition to return lost authority to the court. It remains to be seen if Yanukovych’s administration will do so.
Even if they do, however, Onopenko’s days at the court could be numbered.
Onopenko claims to be facing increasing pressure to step down, citing criminal investigations into his one of his daughters and his son-in-law, Yevhen Korniychuk, a former deputy justice minister, arrested last year and still jailed on abuse of power charges for not holding a competitive bid in the selection of Magisters law firm to represent state-owned Naftogaz, the energy monopoly.
Speaking with the Kyiv Post during the interview, Onopenko questioned the fairness of investigations into his relatives and pledged not to quit.
