The High Council of Justice strongly condemns and considers manifestations of high treason and collaborative activities among judges to be unacceptable. The members of the Council insist on the adoption of legislative changes that will allow, despite the absence of the full composition of the Council, to bring to responsibility those judges who have violated the oath.
Unfortunately, due to the forced absence of the constitutional composition of the body, the High Council of Justice for a long period was deprived of the opportunity to exercise its powers, in particular, giving consent to detain judges or hold them in custody. Impossibility to adequately respond to the shameful manifestations of collaborative activity among judges harms the authority of the judiciary and the state as a whole.
The High Council of Justice once again calls on parliamentarians to urgently adopt changes to the current legislation and temporarily (until the formation of the full composition of the Council) to give the current members of the HCJ the authority to make appropriate decisions against traitor judges. In accordance with Article 131 of the Constitution of Ukraine, decision on giving consent to detain judge or hold him/her in custody, on suspension of judges from the administration of justice can be adopted exclusively by the HCJ.
Since the beginning of the full-scale armed invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor, the High Council of Justice has appealed to people’s deputies more than five times about the need to delegate these especially important during the war powers of the HCJ to the current members of the Council. However, unfortunately, this position is not currently supported.
The need to create conditions for prompt response to cases of collaboration and treason in the judicial system is obvious. Members of the High Council of Justice represent the highest constitutional body of judicial governance, which is obliged to ensure governability and stability of the judicial system, and are capable of collegially providing a proper assessment of the illegal activities of individual judges.
Granting by legislator the said powers to members of the HCJ for a certain defined period is the only possible way to bring collaborators to responsibility, since these functions in relation to judges are not performed by any law enforcement bodies.
Putting on the scales of Themis the compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine of such legislative changes and the lack of effective tools to counter manifestations of collaboration activities and high treason in the judicial system, we believe that all legislative novelties should be aimed at protecting the interests of the state of Ukraine.
It should be reminded that the Prosecutor General’s Office reported that judge of one of the economic courts of appeal was notified of suspicion of justifying the armed aggression of the RF against Ukraine and inciting collaboration activities. According to investigation, the judge, disregarding the oath to the Ukrainian people, after the full-scale armed attack of the RF on Ukraine, in personal communication repeatedly justified the facts of armed aggression, etc.
Uncovering of the illegal activities of the judge was carried out by employees of the General Department of countering systemic threats to state governance of the Security Service of Ukraine under the procedural control of the General Inspectorate of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
It should be noted that to date, the High Council of Justice has not received submission on giving consent to detain judge of economic court of appeal or hold him in custody, as well as a petition for temporary suspension of the said judge from the administration of justice in connection with criminal prosecution.