Vasyl Onopenko

Vasyl Onopenko (Ukrainian: Василь Васильович Онопенко) is a Ukrainian judge, and politician.

Vasyl Onopenko
Minister of Justice of Ukraine
In office 27 October 1992 – 7 August 1995
Prime Minister	Leonid Kuchma Vitaliy Masol
Preceded by	Volodymyr Kampo
Succeeded by	Serhiy Holovatyi
Chairman of the Supreme Court of Ukraine
In office 2 October 2006 – 29 September 2011
President	Viktor Yushchenko
Preceded by	Vasyl Malyarenko
Succeeded by	Petro Pylypchuk
Personal details
Born	April 10, 1949 Velyki Kryshlentsi, Vinnytsia Raion, Ukrainian SSR
Nationality	Ukrainian
Alma mater	Kharkiv Law Institute
Occupation	jurist, politician

Onopenko is from Vinnytsia Oblast. He graduated the Kharkiv Law Institute in 1975 and later a candidate dissertation in 1994. In 1976-1981 Onopenko was a judge of the Lityn Raion court, later in the Chernihiv Oblast court. In 1985-1991 he was a judge of the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

In 1992 he was appointed a Minister of Justice of Ukraine (Kuchma government, Second Masol government). At the post in 1994 Onopenko created own political party, the Party of Human Rights. Sometime in 1995 his party was united with Social Democratic Party of Ukraine and Ukrainian Party of Justice into Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united). He was elected the chairman of the newly created political party.[1] Due to inadequate investigation of events of July 1995 (related to burial of Volodymyr (Romaniuk)), in August 1995 Onopenko resigned.

Soon after being elected to Verkhovna Rada at the 1998 parliamentary elections, Onopenko was excluded from SDPU(u) and created yet another party the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party joining the "Independents" group in parliament and then "Batkivshchyna". In 1999 presidential elections he ran for the President of Ukraine post.

During the 2002 parliamentary elections Onopenko returned to parliament on the party list from Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc being #4 on the list. Soon after being elected, for a short time he was unaffiliated, but then rejoined the parliamentary faction.

For the 2006 parliamentary elections he again ran on the party list from BYuT listed #4. Later Onopenko resigned as a parliamentary (People's Deputy of Ukraine) after being elected to chairman of the Supreme Court of Ukraine. At the end of 2006 his son-in-law replaced him as a leader of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party.

Onopenko quit the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party after Nataliya Korolevska changed it to Ukraine – Forward! in 2012.

In 2012 parliamentary elections Onopenko ran as unaffiliated and unsuccessful.[2]

References

1. Yuliya Mostova, Serhiy Rakhmanin. Partisan Ukraine. Part VI Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) (УКРАИНА ПАРТИЙНАЯ. ЧАСТЬ VI СОЦИАЛ-ДЕМОКРАТИЧЕСКАЯ ПАРТИЯ УКРАИНЫ (ОБЪЕДИНЕННАЯ)). The Mirror Weekly. 15 March 2002
2. 14th electoral district. Central Election Commission of Ukraine. 2012

External links

• Vasyl Onopenko at the Official Ukraine Today