Two judges of the Savyolovsky District Court resigned during a probe into their work, and four more faced disciplinary sanctions over multiple violations, the Moscow City Court said in a statement Friday.
The city court's qualification board was to review the results of the probe next Thursday in what would be the first case where the majority of a district court's judges face such hearing, Vremya Novostei reported Friday, citing Moscow City Court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva.
Five of the six civil judges listed on the Savyolovsky court's web site are mentioned in the report. None of the seven criminal judges are implicated.
The check was initiated after an online complaint filed with the city court in August. The complainant, who only identified himself as “A. Medvedev,” accused judges Yelena Klepikova and Alexei Ivanov of graft, the statement said.
The man, who sought to register ownership of an apartment, was turned down by Ivanov and asked to pay 60,000 rubles ($1,900) to Klepikova to avoid having his case stalled and another 50,000 rubles to win the lawsuit. The legal cost of the procedure was 200 rubles.
The check, which also cited numerous other complaints, discovered more violations in real estate cases — mostly related to paperwork, court fees and scheduling of hearings — committed by four more judges, Tatyana Adamova, Anastasia Mironova, Edita Demidova and Irina Yurova.
The district court's chairman, David Agamov, was accused of incompetence in the city court's statement, but no sanctions were reported for him, as well as for Ivanov and Klepikova.
