Twenty-four out of the 68 criminal cases sent by the National Anti-corruption Agency of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) to courts after pretrial investigations are over and indictments have been drawn up still remain unattended.
“At the same time, some cases have been left unattended by court workers for more than a year. The ‘record holder’ in terms of the delay in court consideration is the case opened against a judge of the Severodonetsk city court (known in the media as ‘the judge with real estate in Spain’), which has been stalled in Donetsk region’s Sloviansk district court for 15 months already. There is also no progress for more than a year in the case of illegal influence on the former Minister of Economic Development and Trade [Aivaras Abromavichus],” the NABU’s press service said on June 12.
The Bureau notes that among the causes mentioned behind the delay in considering the cases in courts are problems with determining the jurisdiction, the lack and dismissal of judges, the failure of participants in the proceedings to appear in court, the return of indictments to SAPO prosecutors, long-lasting consideration in appeals courts and the like.
