The Supreme Court refused to reinstate Pavlo Vovk as a judge

The Supreme Court refused to reinstate Pavlo Vovk as a judge

Today, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court considered the case of Pavlo Vovk, former head of the liquidated District Administrative Court of Kyiv.

He attempted to be reinstated as a judge, from which he was dismissed based on wiretapping materials from his office, reports hromadske.

At the hearing, lawyer Valeriya Lutkovska insisted that wiretapping constitutes interference with private life and cannot simply be used in a disciplinary case against a judge. According to the Criminal Procedure Code, she argued, such materials must be used within the framework of criminal proceedings or under a special procedure.

The lawyer also stated that the three-year statute of limitations for bringing a person to responsibility had already expired. Later, she said, the High Council of Justice applied a new version of the law “retroactively,” which changed the rule for calculating the time limits. This, Lutkovska believes, raises questions about the legality of the HJC decision under which Vovk was subjected to disciplinary liability.

At the same time, representative of the High Council of Justice Artem Brintsov stated that all procedural objections raised by the defence had already been assessed more than once by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court. Brintsov added that the HJC decision is based on specific evidence: Vovk’s interference in the work of other bodies and judges, giving instructions regarding cases, and conduct that undermines the authority of justice.