Judicial reform in Ukraine has begun in illegal way, because even its consideration in the Verkhovna Rada during the war contradicts the norms of the Constitution. This was stated by a human rights defender, MP from UKROP Vitaliy Kupriy on the air of “Radio Svoboda”.
“Back in June last year judicial reform started in illegal way, in violation of the Constitution, because the Basic Law cannot be changed under conditions of war,” said the MP.
He has stressed that the proposed amendments to the legislation would only aggravate the situation in the judiciary. The Verkhovna Rada is trying to introduce amendments to the Procedural Code that restrict human rights, in particular, to the transparency of the judicial process.
Besides, Vitaliy Kupriy believes that the lawmakers want to shift responsibility for collecting evidence against officials on the citizens. While the current legislation provides that civil servants should prove their innocence in court by themselves.
The politician has also drawn attention to the fact that the authorities failed to carry out a qualitative renewal of the Supreme Court, since the absolute majority of candidates selected by the competition commission are people from the old corrupt system. Hence, we can hardly hope that they will make just and unbiased decisions.
In its turn, the Supreme Council of Justice, as before, ignores the claims of human rights defenders on dismissal of judges and does not bring to justice even the most infamous representatives of Themis.
However, according to the representative of UKROP, the biggest problem today lies not in the courts, but in law enforcement agencies, whose chiefs do not want to bring important cases to the guilty verdicts.
“None of corrupt officials was released by court without the prosecutor’s consent, otherwise it would be necessary to apply to the judge the requirements of Article 375 of the Criminal Code, and to open proceedings for a knowingly unlawful decision,” emphasized Vitaliy Kupriy.
