Asked the wrong questions: a VAKS judge was stripped of payments due to a passion for philosophy.

The Second Disciplinary Chamber of the High Council of Justice has held Judge Yaroslav Shkodin of the High Anti-Corruption Court accountable for disciplinary violations. This action was taken because he posed overly philosophical questions in a judicial ruling. This is reported by the Judicial and Legal Newspaper.

On February 12, the Disciplinary Chamber unanimously decided to issue a reprimand to the judge and suspend his additional payments to his judicial salary for a period of 1 month.

As stated in the disciplinary case, on February 12, 2024, the panel of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court applied a preventive measure of detention with a bail set at 50 million hryvnias for the former deputy head of the Ministry of Defense's State Procurement Department, Alexander Liev (in the case of embezzlement of 1.5 billion hryvnias for the purchase of ammunition).

However, a month later, the defendant's side submitted a motion to change the preventive measure and reduce the bail amount by half. Meanwhile, SAP prosecutor Yuriy Luchkiiv noted in his ruling that "currently, there is insufficient evidence collected to qualify the actions of the suspects."

On March 15, investigative judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court, Judge Yaroslav Shkodin, taking the aforementioned circumstances into account, changed Alexander Liev's preventive measure from detention to personal obligation.

In doing so, Yaroslav Shkodin decided to express his judicial ruling in a unique form.

In particular, the judge noted the following:

- "Where have the pieces of evidence of involvement in the subject of the investigation disappeared from the materials of the criminal case, if at the time of the decision of the Appellate Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court on February 12, 2024, there was enough for the application of the strictest preventive measure?"

- "Who misled the judges of the Appellate Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court, and if so, how?"

The panel of judges of the Appellate Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court noted in their judicial ruling that the investigative judge's reasoning regarding the justification of the appellate court's decision is outside his authority, and they saw in the judge's actions a violation of the norms of the Judicial Ethics Code.

In his defense, Yaroslav Shkodin told members of the Disciplinary Chamber that writing a judicial ruling is a "creative process."

"I did not write a single negative word about my colleagues from the Appellate Chamber. I did not question their ruling. These were merely my reflections concerning the prosecutor's ruling by Yuriy Luchkiiv in the context of the lack of sufficient evidence to qualify the actions of the suspects," Yaroslav Shkodin explained.

However, he acknowledged that his personal reflections, which ended up in the judicial ruling, should not have been included in the decision.

Ultimately, the Second Disciplinary Chamber of the High Council of Justice decided to hold Yaroslav Shkodin accountable with a reprimand and to suspend his right to receive additional payments to his judicial salary for 1 month.

As a reminder, the High Qualification Commission of Judges previously annulled the results of the IQ test taken by two groups of candidates for positions as judges in civil appellate courts. The testing revealed that only 17% were successful, leading to the annulment of the test results.

It was also reported that in Kharkiv, during an interview, they "failed" a judge who had previously stolen sugar from a store.