Judge of the Dzerzhynskyi District Court of Kharkiv, Serhiy Lazyuk, who was found guilty of corruption by the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court in 2022 and sentenced to seven years in prison with confiscation of property, may avoid punishment. The reason is a gap in the legislation that allowed him to effectively "freeze" his own case.
In 2023, during the appeal hearing, Lazyuk was mobilized. This automatically suspended the trial, and it has not progressed since then. In the meantime, the statute of limitations expires: for the first episode - in a month and a half, for the second - in January 2026. If the appeal is not resumed in the near future, the verdict of the Supreme Court of Justice will remain on paper.
As noted by the Anti-Corruption Center and Avtomaidan, Lazyuk's case became indicative. When the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law on the mobilization of convicts, judges, prosecutors, investigators, and officials of the President's Office were excluded from the list of those who could not take advantage of this provision. Thus, Lazyuk was able to avoid real punishment under the guise of mobilization.
Human rights activists emphasize that this sets a dangerous precedent. If judges and high-ranking officials can indefinitely postpone sentences thanks to formal loopholes in the law, public trust in the anti-corruption system will be completely undermined.
Bill No. 10100 has been registered in parliament, which would regulate such cases and establish clear deadlines for considering cases even in the event of mobilization. However, so far, deputies are in no hurry to adopt it.
Experts call the Lazyuk case a "litmus test" for the authorities: not only the fate of a particular judge, but also trust in the entire anti-corruption justice system in Ukraine depends on whether there is political will to close the gaps and prevent the case from stalling.
