maverick judge

as he walks into a downtown bar for this interview, he looks more like an absent-minded professor than a judge whose decisions are making waves that extend far beyond ukraine’s shores.

the appellate court judge garnered international attention on oct. 15 when he opened a criminal case against president leonid kuchma. vasylenko ordered the prosecutor general’s office to investigate opposition lawmakers’ accusations that kuchma violated 11 articles of the criminal code.

among the allegations: that the president authorized the sale of military hardware to iraq in defiance of international sanctions for personal financial gain; and that he was complicit in the murder of journalist georgy gongadze.

the decision to open an investigation of a powerful sitting president won vasylenko praise from the opposition, but drew the wrath of loyalist government officials who said the move was tantamount to “legal nihilism.” parliament speaker volodymyr lytvyn argued that opening a case against the president was impossible under ukrainian law, since the constitution provides kuchma with immunity from prosecution while he is in office. consequently, vasylenko has also become the focus of intense, often critical media attention.

reluctant to comply with the court order, prosecutors asked the supreme court to quash it. without ruling on the merit of the prosecutor’s request, the justices referred the matter to the appeals court for consideration on oct. 22.

in a separate matter, vasylenko opened a criminal case against kuchma on nov. 13, alleging that the president violated the law by failing to execute the duties of his office.

specifically, kuchma failed to sign into law two bills sent to him by parliament after it had overridden kuchma’s veto. constitutionally, the president is required to sign bills passed by a two-thirds majority following an earlier veto.

on oct. 15, vasylenko ordered kuchma to sign the bills by oct. 20, but the president failed to do so.

a rooftop view

orphaned during world war ii when he was three years old, vasylenko and his two older sisters were raised in a children’s home in svobodny in russia’s far eastern amur oblast.

life in svobodny was no picnic: food and clothing were in short supply. vasylenko freely mingled with prisoners sent to the town and raided summer gardens for extra food. high adventure abounded, with kids running away from home aboard freight trains bound for blagoveshchenk, the regional capital.

“we jumped on the roof of the rail car. it was a day-and-a-half ride,” vasylenko recalled, adding that some of the boys undertook longer, more dangerous journeys to moscow and beyond.

in school, the older kids held sway and fistfights were common. the tussles, however, were conducted according to set rules and tradition. though he was not noted for his ability as a boxer, vasylenko says he fought hard.

“the scraps were always one on one,” he said. “we never used our feet and the fighting stopped when someone cried or blood was drawn.”

dreaming of becoming a prospector, vasylenko entered a vocational school in blagoveshchenk when he was 15.

his career plans changed after the soviet navy ordered him aboard a cruiser anchored off the kamchatka peninsula. most of the time the ship chased japanese fishing boats, but vasylenko said the highlight of his tour came when his ship shadowed a u.s. aircraft carrier in the pacific ocean.

like most young recruits, vasylenko joined the komsomol in the army, and in 1961 he volunteered to defend cuba against a possible u.s. military invasion of the island.

taking leave from the navy, vasylenko visited vilnius, lithuania’s capital, where he stayed with his great aunt, the wife of the country’s deputy timber and wood-processing minister.

the cross-country train trip was an eye opener, exposing vasylenko to a whole new world. he was amazed by the quantity and variety of the goods available in vilnius.

“i felt like i was in a foreign country, in a completely different atmosphere. people behaved much differently than what i had been accustomed to.”

around that same time, vasylenko listened to a voice of america radio interview with vladimir ashkenazi, a concert pianist who had emigrated to the u.s. from the soviet union. ashkenazi said in the interview that he stopped believing in the communist dream after turning 40. the observation intrigued vasylenko, who was already questioning the state’s infallibility.

“i have remembered those words over the years,” he said.

lifetime on the bench

after graduating from kharkiv legal institute in 1968, he was sent to mykolayiv oblast to work as a judge. vasylenko had hopes of landing a different job as an investigator in odessa.

to his surprise, vasylenko enjoyed life on the bench. his first case involved an individual accused of counterfeiting 5 ruble notes and passing them off in local markets. he reduced the charge to hooliganism.

he found that working as a judge was tricky business during soviet times. law-enforcement agencies and party bosses had their own agendas and little respect for judicial independence, he said.

“police, prosecutors and party officials didn’t answer to the courts,” he said.

vasylenko became a military court judge in 1971 and moved to khabarovsk, in the russian far east. there, he presided over a case involving two soldiers accused of taking revenge on a sergeant for hazing. vasylenko acquitted both, and was subsequently reassigned to anadyr, in siberia’s chukotka district – one of the coldest places on earth.

he returned to khabarovsk in 1977, where his wife died from stomach cancer. with two dependent daughters aged 5 and 6, vasylenko received a transfer to a military court headquartered in kyiv.

the work there was complicated because of the advanced level of corruption involving senior officers, he said.

in 1987, he resigned from the communist party while on an assignment in a military base near murmansk, russia.

“it wasn’t a smart career move,” concedes vasylenko, who was subsequently sacked from the military court system.

vasylenko remarried in 1996 and has a family of all boys: twin 6-year-olds, a 3-year-old and a 2-month old infant.

suffocating courts

as ukraine’s independence movement gathered steam, vasylenko took a well-paying job as a lawyer at kyiv’s institute for social and economic problems before being nominated to become a kyiv court judge in 1993. vasylenko was appointed to serve a ten-year term. since then, he has worked in the court’s criminal division, ruling on thousands of cases involving a variety of alleged crimes.

vasylenko says interference in the work of the judiciary has increased steadily over the years.

“the atmosphere today is suffocating,” says vasylenko,

he said he enjoyed more freedom as a soviet military judge.

“oblast and region courts can now dismiss judges if they want to,” he said. “in the good old days, getting rid of a military judge was nearly impossible because you had to complain in moscow.”

vasylenko says that most judges have caved in to the constant administrative pressure.

ukraine’s high council of justice, a panel charged with overseeing the country’s judiciary, reprimanded vasylenko in july for “engaging in political activities” after he spoke up in support of borys feldman. feldman was a vice-president of slovyansky bank, which is now in liquidation. he was sentenced to nine years in prison in a controversial case.

vasylenko says he now has no intention of revoking his order to investigate charges against kuchma. he also says that he has no axe to grind with kuchma, and denies being an oppositionist judge.

“i have no intention of backing down,” he said. “and if the bureaucrats succeed in blocking the case, i personally will charge them with obstruction of justice.”