On November 25, 2024, the HACC decided to start hearing the case against Pavlo Vovk, the former head of the liquidated KAC, and other defendants anew at the request of one of the defendants. All because there was a change in the composition of the court: Judge Tanasevych was replaced by Judge Kravchuk.
On April 3, 2024, the HACC completed the preparatory proceedings and began hearing this case on the merits; it was at the stage of opening speeches. Due to the large number of defendants, the court proceedings of the case are taking a long time. Since the judge’s replacement alone, the court has been considering the issue of numerous recusals in regard to the entire panel and the prosecutor for about a month.
This is not the first case that, due to the replacement of Judge Tanasevych, is to be heard anew. Before that, the Kyivzelenbud case, the Zontov case, and the Mykytas “apartment case” case started to be heard anew.
In the latest report on the monitoring of the HACC activities, TI Ukraine emphasized the need for the parliament to resolve this potential problem, which may further intensify after the HACC competition. To do this, it is necessary to stipulate in the law that the consent of the participants in the criminal proceedings is not required to continue the trial in the event of a judge being replaced. After all, audio and video recordings of all court hearings allow the new judge to review everything that happened in the process before they join the case.
The NABU and the SAPO accuse Pavlo Vovk, the former head of the liquidated KAC, and a number of other defendants of establishing a criminal organization to allegedly seize judicial power. The investigation was conducted on the basis of published recordings of private conversations—the so-called “KAC films” or “Vovk films.”