Ukrainian Activists Celebrate Anticorruption Court 'Victory,' But Cry Foul Over New Judicial-Reform Bill
By Christopher Miller
KYIV -- While activists in Ukraine have welcomed news that Petro Poroshenko conceded to their demand to create an anticorruption court on October 4, their enthusiasm was curbed knowing that legislation that could hinder corruption investigations is awaiting the president's signature.
The concession came just a day after parliament approved and sent on a contentious bill that would leave room for appeals that could handcuff the new court, a development that activists said was emblematic of Ukraine's postrevolution struggle against entrenched corruption.
Poroshenko, who had resisted the demands of activists and Western allies to create an anticorruption court and even spoke out against doing so at the annual Yalta European Strategy (YES) forum in front of European leaders in Kyiv last month, gave in surprisingly and suddenly, saying that he would take responsibility for the creation of the court.
But he did so with a caveat -- that once signed into law there also be a new "specialized anticorruption chamber in the new Supreme Court that would be the appellate body in all anticorruption cases."
The Supreme Court has been heavily scrutinized of late, with the selection process for a new judge mired in scandal as 30 of the 120 candidates put forth failed to meet ethical standards or account for their assets, according to reports that cite the Public Integrity Council, a civil-society watchdog.
Still, anticorruption activists -- who say they have been targeted as part of a months-long campaign of intimidation and harassment, allegedly at the behest of government officials and vested interests who want to discredit them and see the push for an anticorruption court stopped dead in its tracks -- were elated.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
Heavenly Hundred memorial destroyed in Kyiv, suspect detained:
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
KYIV -- A memorial to the protesters killed by security forces in February 2014 in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, was destroyed on October 5.
A suspect was later detained for the destruction of the memorial on Kyiv's Independence Square, known as the Monument to the Heavenly Hundred, according to RFE/RL correspondents reporting from the Ukrainian capital.
Zoryan Shkiryak, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, wrote on Facebook that the suspect, who was born in 1974 and whose identity was not disclosed, is a resident of Sevastopol in Russia-annexed Crimea, who is currently being held at a police station in Kyiv.
The Heavenly Hundred is a term Ukrainians use for the dozens of people killed when security forces sought to disperse protesters whose demonstrations eventually drove pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February 2014.
After Yanukovych's ouster, Russia seized Crimea by sending in troops and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by Ukraine, the United States, and most of the world.
The Russian takeover resulted in the imposition of sanctions against Moscow by the European Union and the United States.