Draft bill #11130 of March 27, 2024
Sponsor: the Cabinet of Ministers
Status: adopted in full
Who is affected: citizens of Ukraine, government bodies, and the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine
Summary:
- trials in trial courts will be conducted by a collegium of three judges only at the request of the defendant in the following cases:
- the punishment for the crime is imprisonment for a term exceeding 10 years
- criminal proceedings are opened against the President of Ukraine, whose powers have been terminated, MPs, the Prime Minister, Cabinet members, the Prosecutor General, the Head of the SSU, members of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, the National Commission for the State Regulation of Electronic Communications, Radio Frequency Spectrum, and the Provision of Postal Services, the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, or the Head of the National Bank of Ukraine.
What is right: the legislator fulfilled one of the requirements of the IMF and the European Union: judges of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court will be able to consider cases involving top officials not as a part of a collegium but individually.
Why this is important: currently, cases in the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court are considered exclusively by groups of three judges. On one hand, this ensures a more thorough consideration, on the other hand, proceedings take significant time. These new changes will help alleviate the workload of the judges and speed up the proceedings.
Background information: on March 18, 2024, the Cabinet approved the Plan for Ukraine Facility, which will form the basis for the implementation of the financial support program from the European Union for 2024-2027. The draft bill to improve the work of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court was developed as a part of this Plan.