Dear Colleagues,

Let me inform you that today we managed to adopt the decision of the Parliament of Ukraine to revise the provision of the Law on Anti-Corruption Court that was falsified during the signing stage. I remind that in the signed and published version of the Law there appeared a provision that was not voted by the Parliament – that the appeals on the cases by NABU already brought to trial will be considered by regular courts, not by the Appeals Chamber of the Anti-Corruption Court.

According to the most recent amendment, after the Anti-Corruption Court is established, all the sanctions to investigative actions on top-corruption cases, the consideration of such cases in the first instance and in the appeals instance shall be ensured by the Anti-Corruption Court and its Appeals Chamber.

The next important step is to nominate candidates to the Council of International Experts. Under the Law, international organizations shall nominate at least 12 experts and the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine shall select 6 out of them.

The Law stipulates that an expert is to be nominated by an international organization, cooperating with Ukraine in the area of corruption prevention and counteraction in accordance with an international agreement of Ukraine, and each organization may nominate at least 2 candidates. According to the explanation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the nominators can be such organization as follow: United Nations, European Union, World Bank, Council of Europe, OECD, FATF, OSCE, INTERPOL, and EBRD.

I would like reiterate my conviction that the best option is that the mentioned organizations nominated a joint list of 12 strong candidates that would be supported by other reputable organizations – this would minimize the field for tampering in the selection of the Council. Additionally, this should be done as soon as possible, preferably, before the summer vacation time, which begins in Ukraine in late July.

Sincerely yours,

Iegor Soboliev,

Member of Parliament of Ukraine,

Leader of Civic Movement ‘Vyzvolennya’ (Liberation)