For almost a year, the High Anti-Corruption Court has been considering one of the most high-profile cases against representatives of the judiciary in the history of independent Ukraine - the so-called “Vovk tapes” case, where the defendants are judges of the scandalous District Administrative Court of Kiev, including its head Pavlo Vovk. The case of Vovk's brother, Yury Zontov, is also under consideration by the VACS.. Vadim Valko, Roman Verbovsky and Roman Kolyukhov told what is happening with the consideration of these cases and whether there are attempts to drag them out in the article “The most high-profile cases of the VAKS: an update of the trials on the cases of Nasirov, Trukhanov, Rotterdam +, OASK”.

In particular, in the case of the likely creation of a criminal organization and an attempt to seize power by the chairman of the OASK and other accused judges, 10 people are involved:.

Pavel Vovk himself;

his two deputies;

four OASK judges;

former head of the State Judicial Administration;

two ex-members of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine (HQJC);

one lawyer.

“In June 2023, it will be a year since the case is in court. For the first three months, the judges and participants declared withdrawals (self-withdrawals), which did not allow the formation of the collegium. This process was completed only in September last year.. But today, due to the constant absence of the accused, the court cannot even hold a preparatory hearing. Therefore, in this case, there is an obvious delay on the part of individual representatives of the defense,” the authors write..

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They emphasize that without changing the procedural legislation, this story can drag on for years.. However, the launch of the renewed High Council of Justice can play a positive role in this matter..

“However, an updated SCJ has recently been launched, and if the delay on the part of the accused judges continues, the prosecutor’s office may apply for permission to choose measures in the form of detention. At the same time, it is positive that Vovk and the company are not administering justice due to the liquidation of the OASK,” the article says..

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At the same time, in the case of the brother of the head of the UAC, Yuri Zontov, everything is much better.. At the very least, experts see no signs of delay in this case..

Recall that at the beginning of 2021, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau exposed Yuriy Zontov and his accomplice lawyer Yuriy Donets on the likely receipt of a bribe of UAH 100,000. During searches of Vovk's brother's safe house, detectives found more than $3.7 million. , almost 846 thousand. euro, 20 thousand. pounds sterling, 242 thousand. UAH and 100 shekels. The prosecution believes that the actual owner of the premises is Zontov. Although he “forgot” to indicate the apartment and valuables in the declaration.

WACS received the case last March. The meeting is scheduled approximately once a month.. Preparatory completed in August and proceeded to substantive consideration. But due to the replacement of one of the judges of the panel, the consideration on the merits in April was started from the very beginning.

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“In two meetings, we managed to catch up with everything and move on to examining the evidence. In this case, we do not observe delays on the part of the participants, it does not contain hundreds of volumes of evidence or complex schemes, so the court may well consider it in the coming year,” the authors noted..

Recall that the measure of restraint in the form of arrest Zontov was extended on November 30 last year. This was done by Judge Viktor Nogachevsky. However, in mid-December, the brother of the head of the OASK was released on bail of UAH 7.6 million, which was brought by his lawyer.. At the same time, the lawyers filed an appeal with the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court to cancel the continuation of the preventive measure.. But the court refused. In total, Zontov spent eight months in a pre-trial detention center.