The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine has overturned its first-ever conviction of an official for graft after the country’s Constitutional Court struck down key pillars of Ukraine’s anti-corruption legislation.
The decision to throw the conviction out represents a major blow to Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts.
In 2019, the High Anti-Corruption Court found a retired judge guilty of failing to declare her 2015 income in accordance with the law. According to the Anti-Corruption Action Center nonprofit, the individual in question was Nadezhda Posunsya, an appeals court judge in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The conviction marked the court’s first ruling since it was established in September 2019. Posunsya was reportedly fined nearly $2,000.
Then, on Oct. 28, the Constitutional Court ruled that Ukraine’s asset declaration system for government officials was unconstitutional. It also cancelled the penalty for officials who lie in their declarations.
The court’s ruling stripped the National Agency for Preventing Corruption of its main powers for verifying declarations to flag possible illegal activity for investigation. However, the government ordered the agency to temporarily ignore the ruling and maintain its open database of asset declarations.
Still, the decision threatens to wash away virtually all of Ukraine’s progress in anti-corruption since 2014, when the EuroMaidan Revolution ousted corrupt President Viktor Yanukovych and brought a pro-Western government to power.
Because anti-corruption reform is a key pillar for international aid and cooperation, the Constitutional Court decision also threatens Ukraine’s visa-free regime with the European Union and future loans from the International Monetary Fund.
It also could directly derail numerous corruption cases — including against top politicians and judges. On Nov. 18, the High Anti-Corruption Court closed an investigation into Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov, accused of abuse of power and persecuting local activists. Earlier, on Nov. 9, an investigation into the declaration of one of the Constitutional Court’s judges, Volodymyr Moisyk, and a probe into court chairperson Oleksandr Tupytsky, suspected of filing false income and asset declarations, was also shut down due to the ruling.
The National Agency for Preventing Corruption has been looking into the Constitutional Court judges’ declarations for years. It has identified incorrect information in some of their declarations. Moreover, multiple judges had conflicts of interest when they voted to dismantle the agency’s work, something that would make their actions illegal under Ukrainian law.
Read more: Constitutional Court judges live far beyond their stated means
President Volodymyr Zelensky has sought to dismiss all 15 judges of the Constitutional Court and annul their Oct. 27 ruling. But he has struggled to gain the requisite votes in parliament, despite the fact that his Sevant of the People party holds 246 seats, a single-party majority. Opponents say that it is unconstitutional to dissolve the Constitutional Court. Meanwhile, the court has threatened to hear cases that could undermine Ukraine’s banking system and agricultural land market reform.
Parliament has also failed to pass less radical solutions to save Ukraine from the constitutional crisis. It is now creating a working group of lawmakers from all factions to address the issue, Olha Sovhirya, deputy head of the committee on legal policy, said on Nov. 18. The working group will aim to find common ground for legislation by Dec. 1
