The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has passed presidential bill No. 7440 on the High Anti-Corruption Court in first reading.

The corresponding decision was supported by 282 lawmakers at the plenary session on Thursday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.

In particular, the bill was supported at first reading by 101 MPs from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, 67 from the People's Front, two from the Opposition Bloc (three abstained, the majority of the faction did not vote), 22 from the Samopomich faction, 14 from the Oleh Liashko Radical Party, 19 from the Batkivschyna faction, eight and 15 from the People's Will and Vidrodzhennia groups, respectively.

The bill proposes to define the High Anti-Corruption Court as a permanent high specialized court in the judicial system of Ukraine. This court will consider the cases sent to it as a court of first instance and an appellate court.

"A council of international experts consisting of seven members is to be created under the High Qualification Commission of Judges on the basis of proposals of international organizations with which Ukraine cooperates in preventing and combating corruption," Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Oleksiy Filatov said while presenting the document

At the same time, he noted that in order to ensure transparency in the competitive selection of judges of the Anti-Corruption Court, video and audio recording of the meeting of the High Qualification Commission of Judges and the corresponding councils for the selection of judges are envisaged.