A Kyiv court late on June 30 acquitted Oksana Tsarevych, one of Ukraine’s most notorious judges, in an unlawful ruling case.
Civic activists and legal experts have described the Tsarevych proceedings as a landmark case that demonstrates tainted judges’ impunity in Ukraine.
Tsarevych used to be a judge of Kyiv’s Pechersk Court, which has been seen by its critics as a tool of political repression under many governments, including that of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Tsarevych was charged in the case in 2015 and denies the accusations of wrongdoing. She was fired in 2016 for violating her oath by issuing the allegedly unlawful ruling.
Tsarevych stripped of their drivers’ licenses 12 protesters who went to Yanukovych’s Mezhyhyrya residence in December 2013 during the EuroMaidan Revolution. She based her ruling on police reports that claimed the cars did not pull over when required by traffic police officers.
Yevhen Martynov, chairman of Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky District Court, argued that Tsarevych’s guilt had not been proven.
He also claimed that EuroMaidan protesters were not legally victims in the case because they had allegedly filed no complaints with prosecutors. Their lawyer Roman Maselko said the decision on the victims, who have taken part in court hearings, was patently absurd.
Witnesses said during the court hearings that the police reports on the protesters were forged.
Maselko also said the lawyers had provided a forensic assessment according to which there had been unlawful interference in the automatic distribution of court cases in favor of Tsarevych because she was seen as loyal to Yanukovych’s regime.
He also argued that the Prosecutor General’s Office had also sabotaged the Tsarevych case by deciding not to summon several key witnesses. The Prosecutor General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, in June the Constitutional Court, which has been mired in corruption scandals, entrenched judicial impunity by canceling the law that criminalized judges’ unlawful rulings.
Only 48 judges out of the 350 judges accused of issuing unlawful rulings against EuroMaidan protesters have been fired. Several of them have been reinstated in their jobs.
None of them have been convicted, and several have been acquitted.
