Controversial judge's son wanted on murder charges
Ivan Ablov, the son of the controversial judge Yevhen Ablov, has been declared wanted on murder charges, according to the Interior Ministry's website.
The suspect's father was a judge of the Kyiv District Administrative Court (OASK), which has been involved in major corruption scandals. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill on the court's dissolution in December 2022.
The Interior Ministry's website listed Ivan Ablov's place and date of disappearance as Jan. 5 in Bilohorod-Dnistrovskyi, Odesa Oblast.
Official sources have not provided further information in connection to the case.
The OASK's deputy head, Yevhen Ablov, and the court's chief, Pavlo Vovk, played a role in several controversies since their appointment in 2010 during the tenure of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Amid the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013, Ablov mandated law enforcement to clear the Kyiv's Independence Square of the demonstrators and tents.
The court's judges also opposed the adoption of a new Ukrainian spelling, the nationalization of PrivatBank from oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, and reinstated officials suspected of corruption.
In 2020, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) charged Vovk, Ablov, and five other OASK judges with forming a criminal organization aimed at seizing power by taking control over key judiciary bodies.
Following pressure from activists and the public, the law on the OASK's dissolution was adopted by the parliament on Dec. 13, 2022, and signed by the president a day later.
Oleg Sukhov
