High Council of Justice deprives judge from Odesa region of bonuses

The High Council of Justice has reprimanded Oleh Ivinskyi, a judge of the Podilskyi City District Court of Odesa Region.

According to the HCJ website, the judge was also deprived of the right to receive additional payments to his salary for a month.

The Council took such disciplinary action against the judge because of a complaint in which the judge was accused of exonerating drivers who were detained for driving under the influence and limited himself to a verbal reprimand without even imposing a fine, although the Code of Administrative Offenses did not provide for such a possibility.

In total, 14 drivers detained for drunken driving in December 2022 and spring 2023 were not even fined in this way.

The judge explained that the grounds for issuing decisions on exemption from administrative liability were the persons' plea of guilt, sincere remorse, and committing the offense for the first time.

The nature of the offense, the offender's personality and attitude to the act, property and marital status, circumstances mitigating and aggravating liability, and the fact that the administrative offense did not cause any negative consequences, the absence of actual damage to public or state interests, rights and freedoms of citizens or other values protected by law were taken into account.

Earlier, Judge Serhiy Kichmarenko of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa was temporarily suspended from administering justice. This is a case opened against the judge following a complaint from the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office. In June 2024, the High Council of Justice opened disciplinary cases against two judges of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa, Serhii Kichmarenko and Ilya Lonskyi. The complaint alleged that the judge did not respect prosecutors and cited several examples of judicial disrespect.

Кирило Бойко