Reformer of the week – Viktor Trepak
Viktor Trepak, an ex-deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine, said on Sept. 28 that Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s proposal to decide unilaterally which cases can be investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau would emasculate the bureau.
“These changes will mean a significant reduction in the anti-graft bureau’s powers, and its gradual withdrawal from key measures against top-level corruption,” Trepak said.
The anti-corruption bureau has been involved in a bitter conflict with the Prosecutor General’s Office. Critics say that President Petro Poroshenko and his allies are trying to restrict the bureau’s independence.
Lutsenko also triggered a scandal by further politicizing the prosecution service and giving Mykhailo Ledovskikh, an ex-aide to former lawmaker Mykola Martynenko, a top job at the Prosecutor General’s Office on Sept. 28. Martynenko is being investigated in several corruption cases.
Lutsenko previously caused a controversy in July by appointing Vitaly Trigubenko, an ally of President Petro Poroshenko’s gray cardinal Ihor Kononenko, as chief prosecutor of Kherson Oblast.
Trepak stepped down last year, saying that then-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, a Poroshenko loyalist, was blocking anti-corruption efforts.
Anti-reformer of the week – Ruslan Knyazevych
Ruslan Knyazevych, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada’s legal policy committee and a lawmaker with the President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc, has violently resisted efforts to cleanse the judicial system.
Knyazevych’s committee has for 10 months delayed the dismissal of 20 judges who made unlawful rulings during the EuroMaidan Revolution.
The Verkhovna Rada missed the deadline for dismissing the judges earlier this month and had to call an emergency session on Sept. 29 to fire them, after sustained public pressure.
Nineteen of the 20 judges were dismissed.
However, parliament has failed to fire about 778 judges whose terms have expired. Most of these judges were appointed by fugitive former President Viktor Yanukovych without any transparent competitions, and some of them have been accused of corruption.
Several civil society groups said in a statement on Sept. 19 that the Poroshenko Bloc, including Knyazevych, has been blocking the dismissal of these judges for two years.
Knyazevych has defended himself by arguing that it was up to the High Council of Justice to fire the judges. Critics say, however, that the council could be reluctant to fire them, and legal difficulties could also ensue.
