Sept. 17, 2024, 12:54 p.m.
(Vadym Kovalenko. Photo: USI)
On September 16, judges of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa elected a new chairman to replace Serhiy Kichmarenko, and Deputy Chairman Vadym Kovalenko became the new chairman.
Vadym Kovalenko previously served as deputy to former chairman Serhiy Kichmarenko in the field of criminal justice.
In his declaration for 2023, which he submitted as deputy chairman of the court, Vadym Kovalenko indicated that in 2023 he received a free parking space in Odesa with an area of 18.9 square meters, which belongs to Mykola Kovalenko (apparently the judge's father - ed.). Vadym Kovalenko also rents a 3-square-meter storage room in Odesa, and together with his father owns an 82-square-meter apartment in Odesa.
Vadym Kovalenko owns a 1985 VAZ-21063 car and uses a 2012 BMW 530i, which belongs to Mykola Kovalenko. The judge also has a Specialized Rockhopper bicycle.
Last year, the deputy judge's salary amounted to UAH 1 million 615 thousand 521, and he received a 10 thousand hryvnia reimbursable financial assistance from the association of co-owners of the Ideal apartment building.
Last year, the judge kept UAH 1 million 20 thousand and USD 27.5 thousand in cash and another UAH 63 thousand 667 in bank accounts.
The new head of the Prymorskyi Court is Vadym Kovalenko, who has been working there since 2009. In 2021, he released Vladimir Tsaplin, who tried to kill Andriy Yusov. He applied the so-called "Savchenko law" to , which resulted in the attacker , who was sentenced to 12 years in prison, being released. The fact is that Savchenko's law provides for the equivalent of one year in a pre-trial detention center to two years in prison. Therefore, by the time he was sentenced, Volodymyr Tsaplin had already served his sentence, as he had been in custody for six years.
Savchenko's Law is a law of Ukraine that amended the Criminal Code of Ukraine, according to which one day of pre-trial detention is counted as two days of imprisonment when calculating the sentence by the court. The adoption of the law was initiated by Nadiya Savchenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament of the VIII convocation, while she was in custody in the Russian Federation[1]. The law caused a wide public outcry in Ukraine and was criticized after media coverage of crimes committed by those released on parole under the Savchenko Law.
In 2017, the law was repealed, but the judge took into account that the law was still in force at the time of Volodymyr Tsaplin's detention.
Кирило Бойко