Zelensky faces backlash over appointment of judge accused of persecuting EuroMaidan protesters

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to appoint a controversial judge accused of issuing unlawful rulings has sparked a wave of criticism.

On Sept. 25, Zelensky appointed Viktor Kytsiuk as a judge of Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court for life. The Kyiv Independent has requested comments from Kytsiuk and the President's Office and will publish their responses once they are received.

Kytsiuk is one of the most high-profile judges accused of issuing unlawful rulings against protesters during the the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, or Revolution of Dignity, which ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. Activists and legal experts see his appointment as a victory for Ukraine's corrupt judicial establishment and a blow to EuroMaidan ideals.

Kytsiuk's appointment followed decisions by Zelensky to appoint several other judges accused of unlawfully persecuting EuroMaidan protesters and violating ethics and integrity standards earlier in September.

These include Taras Zayets, Maryna Lozynska, Olena Izovitova-Vakim, Viktoria Parnenko, Hanna Lebedeva, and Anton Kotliar.

The president is supposed to appoint judges nominated by judicial bodies automatically under Ukrainian law but this norm conflicts with the principle that he can only appoint judges who meet integrity standards, Mykhailo Zhernakov, head of judicial watchdog Dejure, told the Kyiv Independent on Sept. 28.

The recent judicial appointments have been postponed for years but now Zelensky decided to suddenly appoint a number of highly controversial and tainted judges, Zhernakov said.

"(Kytsiuk) is a highly significant figure," Roman Maselko, a former lawyer for EuroMaidan activists and ex-member of the High Council of Justice, wrote on Facebook on Sept. 26. "It would be no exaggeration to say that he and Judge Oksana Tsarevych are among the best-known judges associated with EuroMaidan cases. Their rulings during the (2013-2014) Revolution of Dignity became one of the catalysts for legislation requiring a review of all judges involved in EuroMaidan cases and for the launch of judicial reform."

Maselko argued that "holding them accountable — or, at the very least, removing them from office — was seen as one of the key tests of whether the reform was actually working and whether judges would face consequences for arbitrary and manifestly unlawful decisions."

Kytsiuk was appointed as a judge in 2009 for five years, and his term expired in 2014.

In 2015, Kytsiuk was charged with issuing unlawful rulings against protesters during the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.

Specifically, Kytsiuk stripped protester Serhiy Poyarkov of a driver's license despite the fact that lawmaker Volodymyr Yavorivsky testified in court that he — not Poyarkov — had been driving the car.

Kytsiuk also stripped EuroMaidan activist Mykhailo Cherkasenko of a driver's license. He was at home at the time a traffic police officer claimed to have stopped him, according to three witnesses who testified in court.

According to the investigators, all cases involving EuroMaidan activists were manually assigned to Kytsiuk and Tsarevych by a court employee using the login credentials of Kytsiuk’s sister. The investigators interpreted this as unlawful interference in court cases.

The High Council of Justice decided in 2017 not to appoint Kytsiuk as a judge for life due to the criminal case against him.

However, in 2019 the Supreme Court canceled the High Council of Justice’s decision, opening the way for Kytsiuk’s potential re-appointment.

In 2020, a Ukrainian court acquitted Kytsiuk.

Maselko accused prosecutors of sabotaging the case despite solid evidence of wrongdoing and thus enabling his acquittal.

At the same time, a highly controversial Constitutional Court ruling annulled criminal liability for unlawful rulings in 2020. Legal experts and activists saw the decision as an effort by the corrupt establishment to block reforms.

"The unreformed Supreme Court has already reinstated dozens of judges widely regarded as lacking integrity after the High Qualification Commission of Judges and the High Council of Justice had previously moved to dismiss them," the judicial watchdog Dejure said on Sept. 21.

"As a result, the president was presented with judicial nominees who clearly failed to meet the constitutional requirement of integrity.... For seven years, Zelensky, as guarantor of the Constitution, refused to appoint members of the judicial establishment who had effectively rigged the selection procedures."

The watchdog added that "now the president has abandoned that approach and is appointing judges in batches with little scrutiny... and he will now bear political responsibility for the anti-Ukrainian rulings that may be handed down by judges associated with EuroMaidan cases."