Separated Anti-Corruption Court of Appeal to start operating on 1 January 2024

In 2022, the Anti-Corruption Court was launched with the aim of ensuring more specialised and effective investigation of corruption-related cases.

Proceedings regarding corruption offences, civil cases instituted under claims for protection of property and non-property interests of the State through civil procedure and under claims for confiscation of property on the basis of the Law "On civil forfeiture of illegal assets", have been placed under the subordination of the Anti-Corruption Court.

The Anti-Corruption Court has set the number of judges at 15. Currently, out of the 15 judges, 13 have been appointed, of which 9 are judges specialising in proceedings regarding corruption-related crimes, and 4 are judges specialising in anti-corruption civil cases.

Review of judicial acts rendered under the mentioned cases through the re-examination procedure shall be carried out by certain judges of the Criminal Court of Appeal and the Civil Court of Appeal, respectively, and at least 6 judges are envisaged in each Court. Currently, 4 judges reviewing the judicial acts subject to appeal under cases of corruption-related crimes in the Criminal Court of Appeal and 3 judges reviewing the judicial acts subject to appeal under anti-corruption civil cases in the Civil Court of Appeal, have already been appointed.

At the same time, the separated Anti-Corruption Court of Appeal will start operating on 1 January 2024.

The Anti-Corruption Chamber of the Court of Cassation will review the judicial acts rendered under the specified cases through cassation procedure. It has been established that judges for investigation of corruption-related crimes and anti-corruption civil cases will operate within the Anti-Corruption Chamber, each of them with five judges. Currently, 8 judges have been appointed in the Anti-Corruption Court, of which 4 are judges for investigation of corruption-related crimes, and the other 4 are judges of the composition of judges for investigation of anti-corruption civil cases.