GRECO Group considers it necessary to create Specialized Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine

The GRECO group (the Group of States against Corruption) sees the need to create a Specialized Anti-Corruption Court in Ukraine, which will hear cases of corruption in the highest echelons of power.

This is stated in the GRECO report after assessing the prevention of corruption among parliamentary members, judges and prosecutors, approved in late June 2017, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said on its Facebook page on Thursday.

"Based on the results of the survey of Ukrainian respondents, GRECO experts drew attention to the fact that NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) investigated and initiated the prosecution of a number of top corrupt officials, but the process stopped at the level of courts. No official has yet been convicted of corruption act after the Revolution of Dignity," the report says.

Therefore, as it was noted, GRECO considers it expedient to create specialized courts in Ukraine, despite the exceptionality of this step.

"At the same time, experts say that it is important for specialized judges to be transparently elected and protected from external influence to deal with corruption cases of officials," the statement says.

The GRECO Group is the Council of Europe's body for anti-corruption monitoring.