Translated material
"We tried"
The Moscow judicial community has elected new leaders
The Moscow Council of Judges is increasingly receiving complaints “about the behavior” of its colleagues, and the capital’s Qualification Board of Judges annually has to consider about 2 thousand submissions for disciplinary action against servants of Themis. These words were spoken yesterday at the 4th conference of Moscow judges.Both of these bodies summed up their work yesterday and elected new leaders. The chairman of the Council of Judges was the former chairman of the qualification board - judge of the 1st instance for criminal cases of the Moscow City Court, Nikolai Sazonov, and the qualification board itself was headed by the chairman of the 8th judicial panel for juvenile affairs, Sergei Markov.
The Council of Judges of Moscow is the flower of the capital's Themis, which includes representatives of magistrate courts, district courts, the Moscow City Court, the Moscow Arbitration Court, and four military garrison courts. There are 20 of them in total. That is, there should be 21, but until the long-awaited Statutory Constitutional Court appears in Moscow, this place in the Council of Judges will remain vacant. This body, by law, is called upon to deal with all issues of concern to members of the judicial community.
According to the law, this sounds like “assistance in improving the judicial system and legal proceedings, protecting the rights and interests of judges, participating in staffing judicial activities and asserting the authority of the judiciary.” The composition of the Council of Judges is renewed every two years, which, according to its leader, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow City Court Alexander Parshin, who left his post yesterday, is incorrect. “Two years is not enough for us. We’ve just learned to work, and we already have to get re-elected,” he complained.
From Mr. Parshin’s report it turned out that the capital’s judges have enough problems. The notorious housing issue has not yet been fully resolved. This is happening because the federal government has not yet decided on what basis it will provide judges with housing - whether these will be office apartments, whether they will be rented out, or whether they will be provided as property. “But many judges need improved housing conditions, and some live in conditions in which a normal person cannot exist,” Mr. Parshin later explained to Vremya Novostei.
The administration of the President of the Russian Federation, as it turned out, is delaying the consideration of candidates for judges. “You will quickly say yes or no so that we can proceed accordingly,” the deputy chairman of the Moscow City Court expressed his wish.
In addition, the Council of Judges is also concerned about the claims made against their colleagues. “Complaints about the behavior of judges cannot but cause concern,” Mr. Parshin said. According to him, the creation of a special commission within the council on judicial ethics would help solve this problem.
“We probably didn’t do everything. Maybe they did something wrong. But we tried,” said Mr. Parshin and gave his colleagues several fresh ideas that could be implemented in the near future. For example, hold competitions for the best court, the best judge and the best judicial staff member. It would be nice, the deputy chairman of the Moscow City Court believes, to work on the issue of transparency of the Council of Judges. “In matters of openness, we really are not doing enough. Apparently, the time has come to communicate more closely with the media - they are our colleagues in matters of covering life. And, unfortunately, we rarely meet,” he noted, and then suggested organizing competitions for journalists – for the best publication, for example.
But Moscow City Court Judge Nikolai Sazonov, who replaced Mr. Parshin yesterday as chairman of the Council of Judges, did not have such a flattering opinion of the press. This is what he noted in his report. “The work of the qualification board is not sufficiently reflected in the media. In two years, I remember only one single publication,” he said offendedly. “Journalists are only interested in the hard facts, not paying attention to the rest of the board’s activities.”
This activity, as Judge Sazonov reported to his colleagues, looked like this. Over the course of two years, the Moscow Qualification Board met 60 times and considered a thousand different issues, most of which were of a personnel nature. Citizens, he said, complain about judges quite often. For example, in 2004 there were 2,714 such complaints, in 2005 - 2,550, and over the past nine months of 2006 - exactly 2 thousand. “Citizens often express their disagreement with court decisions. And although the qualification board cannot make decisions on the merits of cases, we understand that for many, turning to us is the last opportunity to achieve justice,” said Mr. Sazonov, adding that there are still enough complaints about red tape and poor organization of reception of citizens in courts.
According to the proposals of the chairmen of the courts, since 2004 the qualification collegium has terminated the powers of six judges, subjected 22 to disciplinary liability (“in the form of a warning”), and refused to initiate disciplinary proceedings against three judges. The remaining submissions were withdrawn by their submitters.
“But there was not a single submission from the prosecutor’s office,” Judge Sazonov hastened to boast, but then he caught himself: “Although no, unfortunately, yesterday one submission was received - from the Prosecutor General.” This was precisely the “fried fact” that journalists could not help but cling to. “Once we make a decision, then we will definitely tell you everything,” promised the former chairman of the qualification board.
Its current members were elected by conference delegates by secret ballot. Or rather, not all, but only nine people - actually judges of courts of general jurisdiction, military and arbitration. The remaining seven are members of the public. As Mr. Sazonov explained to Vremya Novostey, “people’s” candidates are chosen by various public organizations in the capital, and then they are approved by the Moscow City Duma.
One of these chosen ones, Nikolai Shulepov, gave a speech yesterday. “People often ask me, do they give you any benefits there, why do you go there? So, there are no benefits. Even to drink tea, you have to run to the store yourself,” said the Muscovite, who was allowed to consider issues of the proper performance of their duties by judges, which greatly amused those gathered. By the way, there is one more person who should sit on the qualification board, but his seat is still empty - this is the representative of the presidential administration for the Central Federal District.
As for the current head of the board, he became judge of the Moscow City Court Sergei Markov. He heads the 8th judicial panel, specializing in juvenile cases. Mr. Markov himself is considered one of the best specialists in this field. “This is the most charming judge. Everyone at the Moscow City Court loves him,” the chairman of the city court, Olga Egorova, praised her colleague. When asked how he assessed the work of judges from the perspective of his new position, he himself said: “The most important thing is that a judge must be honest and incorruptible.”