As Rakurs learned, on November 26, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine will once again attempt to consider the issue of renewing the odious ex-chairman Stanislav Shevchuk as a judge.
Recently, on his Facebook page, Member of the European Parliament Dainius Žalimas commented on the possible renewal of the status of judge of Stanislav Shevchuk, the former chairman of the Constitutional Court, who was dismissed in 2019 for violating the Constitution and the law.
“Rakurs” wrote about the situation related to the attempt to return Shevchuk to the position of judge without legal grounds. Therefore, one of our publication’s questions to Mr. Zhalimas, who recently visited Kyiv, concerned precisely this shameful story.
This is what, in particular, Dainius Žalimas, former head of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania, member of the European Parliament, member of the Venice Commission, said in an interview with Rakurs (readers will be able to read the full text of the conversation soon).
According to Zhalimas, it is unacceptable to reinstate as a judge someone who organized the abolition of liability for illegal enrichment and a person who was denied an entry visa by the United States.
In 2015, on the initiative of Žalimas, the Association of Constitutional Justice of the Baltic and Black Sea Regions (BBCJ) was established, which included the constitutional courts of Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.
The entire Association supported Stanislav Shevchuk to become the head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, since we saw in him a very progressive European person. Now, unfortunately, we can say that we were mistaken, but this became clear much later, when he had already taken this position.
With regret, I can state that with his election to office, his already insignificant activity in condemning the judges of the Russian Constitutional Court, who “legalized” Russia’s seizure of the Ukrainian regions, immediately ceased. But even this is not the main thing. The case of illegal enrichment put an end to it. The facts are that Shevchuk actively supported and defended this decision. If he really stood on European principles, he would have acted differently.
There is no factual material to suggest that such a position may have been paid. But I personally felt and generally got the impression that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine was led not by Shevchuk, but by his brother, who changed his name and surname to Rulava Odda.
During one of the conversations Shevchuk and his brother had with me (he came to our dinners and participated in events), I received an offer to help free the money that had been seized. to me was to help by contacting the head of the National Bank of Lithuania for this purpose.
Of course, I didn’t do this, and, of course, I informed the relevant Lithuanian services,” said Dainius Žalimas. — But after the decision in the case of illegal enrichment, Shevchuk’s visa to the United States was canceled. For me, the US position is extremely important. When they cancel an entry visa, they have strong and clear reasons for doing so.
I will not resort to legal details, which are the prerogative of Ukrainian legal experts, whether Shevchuk was fired correctly or not. But it would be very bad if the Ukrainian Constitutional Court rehabilitated such a person. In addition, Ukraine, like Lithuania, has strategic relations with the United States. And reinstatement would certainly be a negative sign towards the United States, which would mean that the processes of fighting corruption are going in the wrong direction.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.