Lviv mayor protests 'insubordinate judges' (06/12/05)

Lviv mayor protests 'insubordinate judges'

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Out of frustration with Lviv's judicial system, the city's mayor, Liubomyr Buniak, declared a hunger strike on June 8 to protest "insubordinate judges" who are swiping real estate for themselves.

Lviv's judges also have personal grudges against him, Mr. Buniak told reporters at a Lviv press conference.

He will not end his strike unless the Ukrainian government sends a committee to Lviv to review judicial rulings, including all cases against him, Mr. Buniak said.

"If my hunger strike is not responded to, then ... it's better to die with dignity than to be on one's knees before those who aren't worthy," Mr. Buniak said.

Mayor Buniak's protest marks the climax of a conflict he has waged for years with Lviv's judges, who have ruled against the city and Mr. Buniak personally in several critical lawsuits.

In one such case, a judge ruled that the city of Lviv had to satisfy the claims of 7,736 teachers in the amount of $900,000 for failing to pay their salaries.

In another suit, a judge ruled that the city of Lviv had to compensate the local Sukhorskyi brothers for the debt they incurred in constructing the Taras Shevchenko monument in the city center. In that case, a Lviv appeals court ordered the confiscation of funds from a city account.

However, it wasn't those suits that caused him to declare the hunger strike, Mayor Buniak said. The last straw, he said, came when he lost four lawsuits in which judges ruled he had defamed two national deputies, Yaroslav Kendzior and Oleksii Hudyma, and two journalists.

The judge ruled Mr. Buniak had to pay the two politicians $10,000 each for offending their "honor and dignity." He had accused Mr. Kendzior of being a KGB agent.

On June 8, Mr. Buniak accused the city's judges of taking city property for themselves, particularly apartments. Judges place under government arrest properties that become available and then secure the apartments for themselves or other judges, he charged.

Such apartments belong to all of Lviv's residents, Mayor Buniak said, and should be distributed based on which residents waited the longest for obtaining the apartments.

When he refused to sign orders transferring ownership of the apartments to these judges who did not wait in line, Mr. Buniak said they began to take revenge.

"I truly can relate to city residents, who for months and years can't resolve their problems in Lviv's courts because of breaches of legal norms or clans," Mr. Buniak said. "Certainly, I experienced all this myself. A regular judge has more rights than the president."

Mr. Buniak named four judges who he said had illegally obtained property.

In an interview with the website Internet Reporter, Oblast Judge Valentyn Hosudarskyi said Mr. Buniak should take his complaint to the legal system, extending from local appeals courts all the way up to European courts.

"With his actions, he's simply ruining community life," said Mr. Hosudarskyi, who was accused by Mr. Buniak of corruption.

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