Speaker of Parliament signs law on supreme anticorruption court
09 June 2018, 11:11
During the joint briefing of the speakers of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia within the framework of the Second Inter-Parliamentary Conference “Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine: Strengthening the Inter-Parliamentary Component of Regional and Security Cooperation, While Developing Interaction with the EU and NATO”, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy has signed the Law of Ukraine “On Supreme Anticorruption Court”.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the law on June 7 by 315 ayes.
The legislative act defines organizational principles and procedures of the court, special requirements to judges of the court and guarantees for their activities, as well as peculiarities of a vacancy competition for position of a judge at the Supreme Anticorruption Court.
By law, the body is designated to be a standing supreme specialized court within the Ukrainian judicial system designed to administer justice in accordance with the legally established principles and procedures in order to protect Person, Society and State from corruption and related crimes, and for conducting a judicial control over pre-trial investigations of these crimes, observance of the rights, freedoms and interests of individuals under criminal proceedings.
The law provides the court a nationwide jurisdiction.
The court is to analyze judicial statistics, study and summarize judicial practice in criminal proceedings assigned to its jurisdiction and to transmit the generalization results to the Supreme Court providing it with proposals related to activities of the Supreme Anticorruption Court, the special requirements to the judges and the guarantees for their activities, and is also to make them public on its official website.
The law establishes a range of special requirements for a judge of the Supreme Anticorruption Court, requirements for a vacancy competition for the post of a judge at the Supreme Anticorruption Court.
As per the law, the Public Council of International Experts exercises its responsibilities through seven members to be appointed by the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine solely based on proposals from those international organizations that cooperate with Ukraine in preventing and counteracting corruption in accordance with Ukraine’s international treaties.
At least two postulants are allowed to be nominated to sit on the council by each of the said international organizations.
The above high commission is only entitled to undertake on the nominees once the number of the candidates is twice as big as the chairs vacant there at the least.
The council nominees may only be appointed at an open sitting of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine.
Members of the council may be citizens of Ukraine or foreigners with an impeccable business reputation, with high professional skills and moral qualities, of public esteem, weight and standing, having at least a five-year experience in investigations and procedural (law) guidance, or administration of justice in corruption-related cases, including outside Ukraine.
Members of the council are to be appointed for a term of two years and cannot be re-appointed again.
The law defines peculiarities of the court judges’ status, additional security guarantees for them, an integrity monitoring procedure of the judges, and conditions for improving their professional competence.
The law appropriately amended the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine "On Supreme Council of Justice".
The law was adopted under the draft bill No.7440.