US slaps visa restrictions on notorious Ukrainian judge
Read also: Supreme Court judge undergoes polygraph tests after allegations that he holds Russian citizenship
"Pursuant to Section 7031(c), the Department of State is designating Vovk for soliciting bribes in return for interfering in judicial and other public processes. As part of this action, two immediate family members are also designated," it said in a statement published on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day.
According to the document, Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022, provides that in cases where there is credible information that officials of foreign governments have been involved in significant corruption or a gross violation of human rights, those individuals and their immediate family members are generally ineligible for entry into the United States and must be either publicly or privately designated.
Read also: Main case against Ukrainian oligarch Kurchenko goes to court
According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), the head of the OASK, Pavlo Vovk, and the judges under his control made decisions in their own interests and in the interests of political elites and business circles.
The investigation concluded that the OASK's chairman was also leading a "criminal organization" whose goal was "to seize state power by establishing control over the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, the High Council of Justice, and by creating artificial obstacles to their work." The indictment was sent to court in June 2022.
Read also: Ukraine’s Accounting Chamber chief resigns following corruption allegations
In April 2021, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted a draft law to parliament to disband the OASK, but lawmakers have not passed it yet.
Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
