High Anticorruption Court

To relaunch the whole court system in Ukraine would have taken five to seven years. Therefore, civil society and international partners saw the opportunity to resolve the issue in around two years with the introduction of the specialised anti-corruption court, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC).¹ It was a civil society demand to have the international council as an additional filter² on integrity for the judges as they did not trust the existing High Council of Justice (HCJ) and High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) to select the HACC judges. The Public Council of International Experts (PCIE) consisted of six members with impeccable business standing and significant professional experience. Four of them have been judges, and two were prosecutors. They assessed the backgrounds of the candidates and interviewed them, serving as an additional filter to the work of HCJ and HQCJ for the integrity of judges.

The HACC began³ its operations on 5 September 2019⁴ with the law⁵ that was adopted in June 2018. The establishment of a judicial institution was difficult⁶ in political and legal terms⁷ as during the Yalta European Strategy (YES) conference, the president,⁸ prosecutor general and the prime minister all said that there was no need for such an institution in Ukraine. The adoption of the legal framework was delayed, there were also problematic issues⁹ regarding the cases, subject to the jurisdiction¹⁰ of the HACC, as attempts were made to block the transfer of cases that were already at trial stage. It was suggested that appeals against such cases should be carried out by general criminal courts. During the formation of the HACC, the Public Council of International Experts¹¹ was actively involved¹² in the selection of judges, and although it had an advisory role, it was an effective filter for eliminating candidates that were not of high integrity. Currently (October 2020), the court is fully operational, and the volume of sentences is approaching two dozen. Meanwhile, society’s distrust of the courts in general is 77.5 per cent,¹³ the lowest among all other government institutions.

Challenges to effective commitment implementation
The HACC is becoming a target for media attacks by opponents of anti-corruption reform. Members of Parliament (MPs) are also applying pressure through appeals to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine¹⁴ to declare the HACC inconsistent with the constitution of Ukraine and offset all anti-corruption reform.

Another challenge is the HACC Appeal Chamber does not have any permanent premises. Even though it has been operating for more than a year, the government has not yet provided suitable premise in possession to comply with the security needs for the judges. The IMF has included this issue in their memorandum with Ukraine.¹⁵

Opportunities to accelerate commitment implementation
The HACC needs assistance with their communication strategies. The website, for example, is not user-friendly. People are mostly only aware of the negative aspects of its work, and public trust is crucial for such an institution and where the courts already have little public support. According to a survey conducted in July 2020, 70 per cent of the public do not trust the HACC.¹³

Recommendations
Enhance safety and security for HACC judges since they deal with major anti-corruption cases, and are at risk of physical attacks and threats. There is currently a lack of state funding for this.

Judicial reform,¹⁶ especially of the High Council of Justice and High Qualifications Committee of Judges need to be relaunched, and high integrity candidates with impeccable qualifications need to be selected.

The Supreme Court has to ensure the unity of judicial practice in all corruption crimes, including those considered by the HACC and other courts.