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Vovk engaging in corrupt transactions and issuing unlawful orders. In 2019-2020 he and other judges of his court were charged with usurpation of power, obstruction of justice, organised crime, and abuse of authority. Yet he remains on the government’s payroll and he has yet to be brought to trial.
The case against Vovk and other judges of his court was sent to the High Anti-Corruption Court in June 2022 but got stuck there. The case has faced numerous obstructions, including the refusal of Vovk and other defendants to attend hearings, and a motion to close the case on technical grounds.
“The case could have been moved forward if the High Council of Justice had authorised Vovk’s arrest or fired him, according to Valko and Mykhailo Zhernakov, head of judicial watchdog Dejure,” the Kyiv Independent reports. “However, both the council and other government bodies have done their best to protect Vovk.” Vovk's judicial immunity, safeguarded by the High Council of Justice, adds to the hurdles in advancing the case. Efforts to suspend or arrest Vovk have been met with resistance from government bodies.
Among others protecting him is the former Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, now ambassador to Switzerland, who refused to authorise an arrest warrant for Vovk or let the NABU search Vovk’s office or wiretap him.
The US has been less shy, adding Vovk to the sanctions lists, “for soliciting bribes in return for interfering in judicial and other public processes,” In December 2022.
It has become impossible to fire judges after the High Council of Justice was stripped of its right to sack bent judges due to a law that created special “disciplinary inspectors” for this purpose in 2021, yet no inspectors have ever been hired. Commentators speculate that the creation of the inspectors was a tool to hoodwink Ukraine’s Western sponsors to, one on the one hand, have a reform to point to as progress, and, on the other hand, to effectively sabotage the judicial reforms.
All these problems led to the collapse of the High Council of Justice when most of its members resigned in February 2022. However, the council was revived this January as part of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's efforts to combat corruption when new members were appointed. In September another new law was passed that empowers the council to consider disciplinary cases and fire judges before disciplinary inspectors are appointed.
The council went back to work at the start of November. Vovk could be sacked now as a result, if a new case is brought against him, but the old evidence from NABU cannot be used as the statute of limitations on that case have expired.
Another way of firing Vovk is if the High Qualification Commission choses to vet him and find him wanting. Vovk skipped a hearing before the High Qualification Commission in 2019, claiming he was sick.
However, vetting was suspended in 2019 when the commission was temporarily dissolved and a new commission was only appointed this June, again as part of Zelenskiy efforts to clean up the system. The High Qualification Commission only resumed work and began vetting judges again on November 13, but questions about its effectiveness remain.
“Earlier in November the High Qualification Commission overrode the Public Integrity Council’s vetoes on two judges who the council says do not meet ethics and integrity standards,” the Kyiv Independent reports.
The panel is made up of Ukrainian and foreign legal experts and in the case of a deadlock the international experts vote on a vetting is supposed to prevail. However, experts say that the Ukrainian members of the vetting panel are tainted and would try to make sure the Constitutional Court is completely
16 UKRAINE Country Report December 2023 www.intellinews.com