The court denied Medvedchuk's request to renew his lawyer's certificate

12.02.2024

The Kyiv District Administrative Court denied Viktor Medvedchuk, who is accused of state treason, the renewal of his certificate to practice law.

This was reported by the public initiative “Holka”.

“Together with my colleague Roman Tytykalo, we applied last year to the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of Advocacy of Kyiv region to deprive Medvedchuk of the right to engage in advocacy. The consideration of our complaint was complex. We even had to declare bias against one of the members of the disciplinary commission, Biryukova, who, in our opinion, had connections to Medvedchuk’s business activities. Medvedchuk’s right to practice law was revoked in May 2023, and Medvedchuk appealed to the court to challenge this decision. And a few days ago, he lost the court case, and there is already a text of the decision,” – says lawyer Ilya Kostin, who, together with Tytykal, is the third party in this case.

Medvedchuk believes that the members of the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission were biased and allegedly pressured.

“… the plaintiff’s representative… alleges the existence of close relations between the complainant lawyer Ilya Kostin and the members of the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of the Kyiv region, as the latter held the position of a member of the Council of Advocates of the Kyiv region from 2012 to 2019 as part of the qualification chamber of the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of the Kyiv region,” – the court’s decision reads.

Medvedchuk’s interests in court were represented by lawyer Oleksiy Kalinnikov. He was previously the representative of the former fugitive prosecutor-general Viktor Pshonka. As of February 12, 2024, Kalinnikov is listed on the website of the Higher School of Advocacy of the National Bar Association as a lecturer. For more than 10 years, the Bar Association has been headed by Medvedchuk’s associate, Lydia Izovitova.

As previously reported by the public initiative “Holka,” the Association led by Medvedchuk’s associates is exerting pressure on those lawyers who have joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including the aforementioned Ilya Kostin. Moreover, instances of participation in the torture of prisoners by traitors who are active lawyers in the temporarily occupied territories are being ignored.

“The legal profession was ‘reformed’ during the times of the state traitor Yanukovych and Portnov. And they did it in such a way that Medvedchuk’s associates could take control of it and created their own monopoly. The European Commission’s report states that ‘the legal profession is a key prerequisite for access to justice and an effective market economy and currently requires real reform. The law on the legal profession must comply with the Constitution, European standards, and good practices.’ This is one of the urgent tasks that the Committee on Legal Policy must address. The committee is chaired by Denis Maslov, and the head of the relevant subcommittee is Volodymyr Vatras. Both are deputies representing the ruling majority and can count on support for their initiatives in the session hall,” emphasizes the head of the public initiative “Holka,” Irina Fedoriv.

It is worth reminding that at the beginning of the year, the Constitutional Court began considering a complaint from lawyer Viacheslav Pleskach. He does not want to be a member of the Association, which has such non-state policies. However, according to the law, leaving the Association means ceasing legal practice and losing the status of a lawyer.