Despite released tape recordings and announced suspicions against three representatives of DACK, the court continues to function and make doubtful decisions

In 2013-2014, during the Revolution of Dignity more than half a dozen judges of District administrative court of Kyiv made the number of decisions which had banned peaceful protests on Independence Square in Kyiv.

On November 30, 2013, at 11:55 pm DACK judge Bogdan Sanin made the decision to ban peaceful protests on the Maydan and adjacent streets from December 1, 2013 till January 7, 2014. By this decision he made millions of people offenders, who went to the Maydan, in particular, during the most massive days of the protest, namely on December 1 and December 8. And also he untied hands of Berkut. It is interesting that in the meantime his father-in-law Volodymyr Yatsuba was sending trains full of thugs "titushky" from Sevastopol to Antimaydan protest.

On December 9, 2013, another judge of Kyiv District Administrative Court Yevhen Ablov quickly considered the appeal of the citizen to whom protesters had allegedly prevented walking along Khreshchatyk. At first, Ablov made the decision to secure the appeal, by which he ordered Berkut to clear the Maydan and disperse protesters in fact. On the same day he satisfied the appeal. The unsuccessful attempt to storm the Maydan on the night of December 11 is connected with this decision.

DACK judges Viktor Danylyshyn, Anna and Valeriy Kuzmenko, and Olena Sokolova also satisfied the decision to ban protests.

Today, all "Maydan judges" continue to work in DACK. Despite the fact that Bogdan Sanin did not confirm his ability to administer justice in April 2018, he has not been dismissed yet. Moreover, Bogdan Sanin is the judge-speaker of DACK. Yevhen Ablov is currently suspended from administering justice, but he has not been dismissed and, according to the NABU tape recordings, continues to participate in the discussion of cases.

DACK considered appeals of dismissed, according to result of certification, employees of Kyiv police and the Central Apparatus, in particular, odious departments that fight against drug crime and economic protection. According to DACK head Pavlo Vovk, about 90% of dismissed police officers were resumed to positions.

Policemen from Kyiv and Central Apparatus of the National Police were among first who went through the certification process of the police. According to the result of certification, 771 police officers were dismissed in Kyiv. And the Central Apparatus of the National Police had to be reduced by 1,090 persons. In particular, more than 50% of employees fell under dismissal according to the result of certification in odious Department of Economic Protection.

However, police officers began to massively send appeals with the demand to resume their positions in District administrative court of Kyiv, where DACK judges had satisfied almost all appeals regarding resuming to positions. Police officers were not only resumed to positions, but they were also given considerable compensation for the time they were not able to execute their powers.

In particular, the judge Yevhen Ablov resumed position to deputy head of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Grygoriy Mamka (now Member of Parliament of the Opposition Platform - For Life), however, then head of the National Police Khatiya Dekonoidze and Mikhail Saakashvili had accused him in corruption and pressure on business. The judge Dmytro Kostenko resumed position to Volodymyr Petrovets, who is currently one of suspects in the murder of 5-year-old boy Kyrylko in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi.

DACK judges suspended from office acting Minister of Health Ulyana Suprun and forbade her to take any action as the head of department. As the result, large consignment of essential medicines to regions was under the threat.

In February 2019, DACK judge Sergiy Karakashyan forbade first deputy to the Minister of Health of Ukraine Ulana Suprun, who was acting head of the department at that time, to take any action aimed at exercising powers of the Minister of Health of Ukraine. Simply put, he suspended her. It is interesting that after significant public response the judge Karakashyan cancelled this decision himself.

The complainant in the case is former Member of Parliament Igor Mosiychuk. The appeal itself is absurd and far-fetched, but it is still being considered by District administrative court of Kyiv.

District administrative court of Kyiv resumed position to Roman Nasirov, the head of the State Fiscal Service, who is the subject of the NABU case. The court also ordered to pay Nasirov's salary for "forced absence".

In March 2017, the NABU detectives handed the announcement of suspicion to then head of the SFS Roman Nasirov. Law enforcement officers suspected him of abuse of office. During 2015-2016 he has been acting in interests of Oleksandr Onyschenko. He gave unfounded and illegal, according to investigation, instructions to subordinates regarding installment of tax debt to companies of the fugitive former Member of Parliament. Thus, the state budget did not receive about 2 billion UAH. The investigation also found that Roman Nasirov has British citizenship, despite the fact that dual citizenship is prohibited in Ukraine.

In March 2017, according to suggestion of Oleksandr Danylyuk, the government unanimously supported Nasirov's withdrawal from office, and in 2018, it fired him.

However, in December 2018, judges of District administrative court of Kyiv found Nasirov's dismissal illegal and resumed him to the position of the head of the SFS. The court also questioned the credibility of information regarding British citizenship of Roman Nasirov, although this information was confirmed by British Embassy in Ukraine.

Moreover, in November 2017, the panel of judges including Ablov Y.V., Grygorovych P.O., Smoliy I.V. made resolution by which they had recognized that actions of Nasirov, for which he was charged, were legal. In this way, they wanted to influence on the investigation. This resolution was so blatantly illegal that the NABU detectives had launched investigation regarding deliberately unjust decision. Finally, in September 2019, the Supreme Court cancelled this resolution and found that the court should not have considered this case at all, as it was "not subject of any jurisdiction".

DACK judges practically made it impossible by their decision to further investigate the case regarding embezzlement of 14 million UAH of state funds by the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov during procurement of backpacks for the National Guard.

In 2015, the video from security camera appeared on the Internet, where person who looked like Avakov's deputy Sergiy Chebotar made the agreement with the person who looked like Avakov's son Oleksandr regarding supply of large consignment of backpacks for the National Guard. Prior to the announcement of tender the deputy Minister promised that backpacks would be purchased through the company which had offered Avakov-Junior.

The NABU launched investigation regarding this fact. Suddenly, two and a half years after tender completion one of participants of tender decided to appeal. In 2017, the panel of judges of DACK, including Yevhen Ablov, Igor Smoliy and Pavlo Grygorovych, considered the case very quickly (within 1 month), and refused to cancel the decision of competitive tender, according to results of which "Avakov's backpacks" were procured. At the same time, the court assessed tender and did not see any illegal actions on the part of the MIA officials during the procurement.

The decision was not appealed and came into force. It is obvious that this decision was planned to be used to "bury" the NABU criminal case regarding embezzlement of 14 million UAH of state funds during this procurement.

District administrative court of Kyiv made the decision that the NABU and the PGO were not allowed to conduct investigative actions against MP Boryslav Rozenblat. In fact, it recognized the entire special operation of the NABU illegal.

In September 2018, DACK judge Ruslan Arsiriy made the decision in favor of former MP Boryslav Rozenblat in dispute against the NABU and the PGO regarding the legality of wiretapping by the latter.

We should remind that Boryslav Rozenblat along with accomplices are suspected of receiving the bribe in the amount of more than 300.000 USD for lobbying certain draft laws in the Verkhovna Rada and for influencing on state bodies.

To show up "amber MP" in his true colours, the NABU organized special operation, which resulted in audio and video where MP Rozenblat had "solved" the question regarding issuing permits for amber mining. The NABU detectives took the court's permission to wiretap assistants of MP and other subjects of the scheme. Boryslav Rozenblat himself came under such covert control unplanned.

The text of decision is closed, but comments of this decision show that in opinion of the court in the person of the judge Arsiriy, law enforcement officers had no right to conduct covert investigative actions against MP, as the latter is protected by immunity. And when they found Boryslav Rozenblat in the case, they had to interrupt investigation.

The inconsistency of decision of District administrative court of Kyiv is that this body should not consider the above-mentioned case at all, as the legality of actions of agents and operatives should be determined by the court in the criminal case, but not by administrative one. Why DACK took such function on is the mystery.

DACK judge Igor Pogribnichenko allowed the developer to build 72-meter-high house in the center of Kyiv, although courts of all instances, including the Supreme Court, had previously made the decision that the house could not be higher than 27 meters.

In August 2019, the Supreme Court forbade the construction company to build 72-meter-high house almost in the center of the capital. Before that all authorities agreed that the height of the object could be only 27 meters.

However, it turned out that this was not the final point in the above-mentioned dispute. The case was sent to Kyiv District Administrative Court to the judge Igor Pogrebnichenko. The servant of Themis paraphrased the decision of the Supreme Court in the motivating part of the decision, and decided that they meant not 27 meters, but 72 meters.

Thus, Pogribnichenko in fact cancelled the decision of the cassation instance and played up to business interests of the developer against interests of the community. The giant building will significantly stand out among the architectural style of the historic part of Kyiv.

DACK judges organized the scheme according to which they had received corporate apartments. Then, they removed the status of corporate apartments and privatized them. For instance, the judge Yevhen Ablov sold privatized corporate apartment for 9 million UAH.

According to the law, the corporate apartment can be provided only for the time while the person works in the department without the right of privatization. However, judges of District administrative court of Kyiv Ablov Y.V., Pogribnichenko I.M., Amelokhin V.V., Fedorchuk A.B., Vlasenkova O.O., Kachur I.A., Katyushchenko V.P., Mazur A.S. found interesting loophole for the appropriation of corporate apartments without any responsibility.

The essence of scheme is that they send the request through the Assembly of Judges to the chairman of the court regarding removal of corporate status from their apartments. However, Pavlo Vovk does not do this and judges send the appeal to the court, which makes the decision very quickly. Namely, to oblige the chairman of the court to begin the process of removing corporate status from apartments. Pavlo Vovk does not appeal this decision, but immediately implements it. As the result, these apartments cease to be corporate and are appropriated by judges through privatization, which is directly prohibited by the law.

This scheme was created solely in order to legalize the appropriation of expensive apartments in the capital and release the chairman of the court from responsibility for their illegal removal of corporate status.

By the way, most judges who had received and then had privatized corporate apartments did not need improval of their living conditions. They received apartments due to fictitious registration of relatives in these apartments. For instance, in order to receive corporate apartment the judge Pogribnichenko, who had the house near Kyiv, stated that he lived in one-room apartment with his sister, mother, father, and even grandfather. When he received corporate apartment, he did not live there at all. There was similar situation with the judge Fedorchuk, who has large estate near Kyiv.

It is also interesting that in 2016 the judge Pogribnichenko ordered Pechersk District Administration to provide free of charge luxury apartment in the center of Kyiv to the member of the HQCJ Tetyana Veselska. She also quickly privatized it and registered on her daughter.

The court is massively cancelling the decision of the NACP to detect lies in declarations of top officials. Thus, for instance, the MP Vadym Novinskyi and Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova avoided responsibility.

According to the law, the NACP has maximum 90 days to examine officials' declarations. But according to experts, 96% of all examinations were conducted in violation of these deadlines. For instance, declarations of the judge of the Supreme Court have been examined for more than 20 months.

This is obvious violation. But courts also have deadlines for consideration of cases that are usually violated. In most cases the High Council of Justice also violates terms of consideration of complaints against judges. However, this was never the reason to cancel such decisions. Instead, District Administrative Court began to massively cancel NACP's decisions that had been made beyond these deadlines.

Thus, the court satisfied appeals regarding annulment of the NACP's decision, which had established violations in declarations of the well-known MP Vadym Novinskyi and the Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova. By the way, due to consideration of this case Pavlo Vovk told the well-known phrase from "the NABU tape-recordings" that "he holds this Commissioner by the throat".

We should remind that according to the NACP, Vadym Novynskyi submitted false declaration regarding his property in 2015 and 2016 for the amount of more than 8.6 million UAH in each declaration. And Lyudmyla Denisova forgot to submit in the declaration income for the amount of more than 23 million UAH.

We should note that this scheme is used selectively in the court. For instance, when considering the case according to the appeal of Automaydan against member of the High Qualification Commission of Judges Tetyana Veselska, the judge Kachur I. decided that the NACP had been legally examining her declarations for more than 1.5 years.

The court cancelled without reason negative conclusions of the Public Integrity Council regarding almost 50 judges. Cases were considered despite the fact that the PIC is not the subject of power and cannot be the defendant in the court at all.

Almost 50 judges, who had received opinions on their dishonesty during the competition to the Supreme Court or qualification assessment, sent appeals to District administrative court of Kyiv, whose chairman Pavlo Vovk also had received such opinion.

According to the law, the Public Integrity Council is not the subject of power authority and cannot be the defendant in courts. The PIC does not even have address to which it would be possible to send summonses. It does not make final decisions regarding the judge. The Public Council of International Experts, which was involved in selection of judges to the Anti-Corruption Court, has similar status. They also tried to appeal its actions, but the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court finally decided that such cases should be closed.

Instead, DACK judges consider such cases and, without the participation of the PIC, cancel its conclusions, cover judges. At the same time, they use simply absurd arguments. For instance, the PIC does not have the right to examine declarations of judges. As for the case of well-known judge Malvina Danylova, who was even twice declared dishonest by the HQCJ, District administrative court of Kyiv rejected video recording of the judge's dishonest behavior because the PIC did not conduct proper expert examination of the video. In particular, the court stated that "opinion of the PIC as of February 9, 2017, does not contain reference to any linguistic examination that would indicate that the statement "Are you journalist? Please leave" is unethical appeal to journalists".

Thanks to District administrative court of Kyiv acting prosecutor in Kyiv Oleg Valendyuk managed to pull interesting scheme in 2014, which allowed him to avoid lustration and dismissal.

Oleg Valendyuk received letter from the PGO stating that he was subject to lustration. He immediately sent the appeal to the court with request "to declare actions of the PGO aimed at his dismissal illegal".

The judge Danylyshyn V., who was the first who had banned peaceful meetings on Maydan, very quickly satisfied the prosecutor's appeal and ordered the PGO to "stand down on dismissing Valendyuk O.". Usually the consideration of cases in DACK lasts from 6 months. Valendyuk's case was considered during 40 days. But it appeared in the Register of Court Decisions only 6 months after its adoption.

Many cases of lustrated prosecutors are currently considered in the court, they are paused before the decision of the Constitutional Court's regarding constitutionality of the law. But some were more lucky. In August 2019, the court resumed position to Mykola Golomsha, former Deputy Prosecutor General Pshonka. The judge Amelokhin decided that the prosecutor could not be lustrated because the PGO had not provided evidence that Golomsha had contributed to usurpation of power by the President Viktor Yanukovych or that he had been involved in undermining national security and defense or violation of rights and freedoms.

DACK judge decided that former MP Sergiy Leshchenko and the NABU Director Artem Sytnyk had disclosed information about relationship between Paul Manafort and Viktor Yanukovych... interfered in election process of the USA in 2016. This decision was made by the judge on the ground of analysis of news from various online publications.

On December 11, 2018, the judge Katyushchenko V. satisfied the appeal of MP Boryslav Rozenblat against MP Sergiy Leshchenko and the NABU director Artem Sytnyk. The court made the decision that defendants interfered in the election process in the USA in 2016.

It was about the publication of data regarding the so-called "black accounting of the Party of Regions", which mentioned last name of former head of Donald Trump's election headquarters Paul Manafort. The court, based on analysis of news from various online publications, made the decision that Sytnyk and Leshchenko were interfering in the US elections. Then, Pavlo Vovk boasted on Channel 112 that Donald Trump and his lawyer Giuliani had referred to this decision as evidence of such interfering. After this interview, there was strong feeling that Pavlo Vovk was personally interested in such decision.

However, this decision was obviously illegal and absurd. It was made by Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal, which had completely cancelled it as illegal and unfounded on July 16, 2019. But such decisions can have catastrophic consequences for the authority of the state.

Despite the competition of the new head of the State Judicial Administration, the winner cannot take his position from February 2019 due to blocking of this process according to DACK decision.

On January 17, 2019, the High Council of Justice announced competition for the position of the head of the State Judicial Administration. In February, Sergiy Pushkar was recognized as the winner.

However, current head of the SJA Zenoviy Kholodnyuk was not going to give up the position he had received in 2014, despite the fact that he was subject of lustration. He sent the appeal regarding results of the competition to District Administrative Court and filed the lawsuit to secure the appeal. At first, the judge Keleberda V. had refused him, but one month later he radically changed his mind and suspended the decision of the Competition Commission regarding winner of the competition. Thanks to this, Zenoviy Kholodnyuk still heads the SJA.

This is exactly about the case on released by the NABU "Vovk's tape recordings". Before suspending the appointment of the new head of the SJA, Pavlo Vovk and Zenoviy Kholodnyuk had discussed this case and what to do with securing the appeal. DACK head also stated that he had talked about the head of the SJA with Oleksandr Granovskyi, and the latter talked with the President Poroshenko. And everyone agreed that Kholodnyuk should be left in his position. That means that Pavlo Vovk completely controlled the course of consideration of Kholodnyuk's appeal.

In his turn, Zenoviy Kholodnyuk unreasonably announced competition to positions of members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges at Vovk's request. It was won by people appointed by Vovk in advance, including Sergiy Ostapets.

Kyiv District Administrative Court satisfied the appeal of former deputy head of the Presidential Administration during Yanukovych presidency Andriy Portnov and retroactively forbade the celebration of anniversaries of the number of Ukrainian figures, including head of the OUN Andriy Melnyk. This is stated in court decision as of January 19, 2021.

Portnov asked the court in his lawsuit to declare illegal and cancel the decision of Kyiv City Council as of February 27, 2020 regarding celebration of memorable dates and anniversaries in Kyiv in 2020.

It is about celebrating anniversaries of eight figures. Namely: head of the OUN Andriy Melnyk; Colonel of the Army of Ukrainian State, Adjutant of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi - Ivan Poltavets-Ostryanytsya; colonels of the UIA Vasyl Levkovych, Vasyl Sydor and Vasyl Galasa; writers Ulas Samchuk and Yuriy Lypa; Ukrainian scientist and editor of the "Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies" Volodymyr Kubiyovych.

Portnov in his appeal stated that celebration of anniversaries of these figures contradicted the law "On Condemnation of the Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) Totalitarian Regime".

Portnov believes that intention to honor the above-mentioned figures "distorts essence of the national idea and casts shameful shadow on Ukraine in eyes of international community".

DACK judge Lyubov Marulina made the decision to satisfy the appeal of Portnov in full force. Decision of Kyiv City Council as of 2020 to celebrate memorable dates and anniversaries in the capital in 2020 was declared illegal and canceled.

On January 21, DACK judge Arsiriy made the Ministry of Education to ensure the review of History textbooks which mention events of the Revolution of Dignity, according to the appeal of Andriy Portnov, former head of the Presidential Administration during Yanukovych presidency. Arsiriy believes that historical facts about actions of Berkut on the Maydan have not been confirmed by regarding court decisions, and, therefore, they should be reconsidered.

Thus, Andriy Portnov demands to remove the stamp "Recommended" and review content of several school textbooks, which describe events of the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-2014. These are seven textbooks on the History of Ukraine for the 11^th grades in 2019 and one History textbook for the 5th grade, which was published in 2018.

At first, on March 25, 2020, Portnov addressed the Ministry of Education and Science with the demand to review information in textbooks regarding events of the Revolution of Dignity. Portnov stated that authors of textbooks manipulated facts and scores, distorted information and fabricated facts.

As example of false information Portnov cites textbook on the History of Ukraine for the 11th grade of the profile level: "…on January 22, 2014, on the Day of Unity of Ukraine, Berkut snipers shot dead five Euromaydan activists on Grushevskogo street". Portnov emphasizes that authors "unequivocally and categorically" state that five activists were killed by law enforcement officers. Portnov believes that it is impossible to write like that, and refers to the Unified State Register of Court Decisions where there is no decision according to which Berkut officers were found guilty of murders as of the January 22, 2014.

According to Portnov, the Ministry of Education and Science allegedly did not consider his appeal, in fact, and provided only formal answer. Then, Portnov went to the DACK. The court found that the Ministry of Education and Science did not respond to the appeal properly and illegally refused to examine textbooks.