On 27 December the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) published a list of candidates to the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) who passed the written test. The 113 applicants will proceed in the competition, including 32 competing for the HACC Appeal Chamber. From now on, the Public Council of International Experts has 30 days, until 26 January, to veto questionable candidates.
If the international experts have doubts concerning integrity and professionalism of a particular candidate, they will initiate a review of this issue at a joint meeting with the HQCJ. If at least three out of the six members of the PCIE do not confirm the candidate’s integrity and professionalism, this candidate will no longer be able to proceed in the competition.
After this, the HQCJ will select winners among the remaining candidates at its own discretion.
Civil society organizations Transparency International Ukraine, Anti-Corruption Action Center, DEJURE Foundation and Automaidan have analyzed the list of the candidates to the HACC and identified questionable applicants.
The candidates with successful written test results include so-called Maidan judges, candidates with wealth of questionable origin and those who were involved in highly unethical behavior.
The list of candidates that the civil society organizations believe to be ineligible for the High Anti-Corruption Court, will be presented on 9 January 2019 at 10 a.m. in Ukrainian Crisis Media Center (2 Khreshchatyk Street).
The High Anti-Corruption Court will start working after at least 35 judges are appointed, including 10 Appeal Chamber judges. The cassation (repeat appeal) instance to HACC decisions is still the Supreme Court, namely the Cassation Criminal Court functioning as part of the Supreme Court.
As a reminder, in June 2018, the Verkhovna Rada adopted law No. 7440 on the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine, which will handle exclusively high-level corruption cases.
