Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Resident Senior Fellow Anders Åslund writes for Kyiv Post on why Ukraine needs to reform its prosecution and judicial system:
Ukraine’s judicial system, including the prosecutor’s office, is in dire need of reform. Since the fall of President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014, the malfunctioning of the prosecutor’s office has been nothing but baffling. No action has been taken on the many billion-dollar embezzlement cases that have been exposed in the media. The worst offenders have fled to Russia. The popular explanation is that they have paid prosecutors to close their cases, which appears all too plausible. Only on Jan. 12 were Yanukovych and a score of his top accomplices finally declared wanted for organized crime by Interpol.
Prosecutors and judges are both excessively lenient, raising questions about whom they may be protecting. At present, Ukraine has 10,279 judges and 20,367 prosecutors. The almost unanimous popular view is that they are all corrupt.