High Anti-Corruption Court Rejects Disqualification Motions in Odesa Smuggling Case

The panel of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court refused to consider motions filed by several lawyers to disqualify judges in the case of organizing a scheme to smuggle goods across the Ukrainian border, in particular at the Odesa customs.

The judges relied on the fact that similar motions had already been considered earlier in the preparatory hearing and rejected.

Some of the motions were filed by the defendants' new defense lawyers, and therefore the court should consider their submissions since they had not filed them before. However, the chairman of the panel emphasized that he considers such actions of the defense lawyers to be an attempt to delay the case.

"The legislator did not provide for consideration of the same issues of judges' disqualification several times. This is how such situations are prevented, because in this way it is possible to delay the hearing by bringing in new defense lawyers who file the same motions and so on until the defense lawyers, excuse me, run out. The court considers such actions of the defense lawyers to be an attempt to delay the hearing and therefore leaves the motion without consideration," the chairman explained.

The defense lawyers, in turn , argued that the court had not given them the opportunity to review the evidence in the case, and the judges insisted that the preparatory hearing did not provide such an opportunity for the parties.

According to the prosecution, in mid-2016, Vadym Alperin created a criminal organization with structural units in Odesa and Kyiv. The group included Alina Skomarova, former director of the SFS department, Serhiy Tupalsky, deputy head of Kyiv customs, Alperin's colleagues Oleh Sebov and Yevhen Iskold, and a representative of private companies at the customs office Serhiy Shkuratov.

Alperin assigned the following tasks to the organization's members: importing textiles and light industry goods into Ukraine; acquiring or creating potential importing companies; delivering these goods to the customs point; bribing customs officials; paying understated customs duties to release these goods into circulation; filing customs declarations with understated customs values; and obtaining court decisions to adjust such understated customs values.

Кирило Бойко