You're reading: Romaniuk says creation of anti-corruption courts in Ukraine misplaced

The creation of specialized anti-corruption courts today is misplaced, according to Head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine Yaroslav Romaniuk.

“Our opinion was not taken into account, while we stuck to it. In the current conditions it is inappropriate to create anti-corruption courts,” he said at the conference devoted to the judicial reform held in Kyiv on April 7.

Romaniuk said that according statistics of the Supreme Court, the share of anti-corruption cases is falling by 30-40% every year.

“If we track this trend more, it is unclear why we are creating the heavy structure (the anti-corruption court). We do not see there (in anti-corruption cases) any complicated cases. There are complicated cases, schemes of embezzling budget funds, but today there are no such cases in judicial practice. There are some uncomplicated crimes – bribing or abuse of power usually committed by heads of rural councils, National Police officers, prosecutors or judges, but this is not a special category of cases. These crimes were always successfully heard by current courts,” he said.

Romaniuk said that specialized anti-corruption courts could exist in the form of the chamber as part of the regional courts of appeals.

He said that anti-corruption courts in Europe are not popular.

Earlier the High Council of Justice after hearing the bill on anti-corruption courts (No. 6011) has come to the conclusion that the document does not suit the Constitution of Ukraine.

According to a memorandum of cooperation between Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada is expected to pass a bill on anti-corruption courts by the middle of June 2017, and such a court is expected to become operative by the end of March 2018.