other initiatives, which were also backed by European governments and international organisations. These efforts proved controversial among some of the judicial old guard, but a band of reformist judges – dubbed the "judicial opposition" – increasingly gained support from reformers in local administrations who pushed for an end to judicial corruption. Judges were indicted en masse in Dnipro in the early 1990s, and later on judges from the Mykolayiv city court and the Moskovskyy district court of Kyiv were put on trial for corruption. Major changes were made to the judicial system when the law "On the court system" was passed on 7 February 2002, creating a new level of judiciary and enacting institutional safeguards to insulate judges from political pressure. President Viktor Yanukovych formed an expert group to make recommendations how to "clean up the current mess and adopt a law on court organization” on March 24, 2010. One day after setting this commission Yanukovych stated “We can no longer disgrace our country with such a court system.” In December 2011 certain economic crimes were decriminalized. Concrete steps the Azarov Government proposed were the abolition of pre-trial detention for non-violent crimes, promoting experienced judges with strong records and punishing bribe-taking and corruption in the judiciary. A law passed in 2010 improved the basic salaries of judges, and a more rigorous method of selecting candidates for judges was introduced. But reforms brought many new problems: the Supreme Court lost almost all of its powers, judges become very dependent on the Supreme Council of Justice, and the ability to sue the government was severely limited. A new criminal code came into effect on 20 November 2012. On 8 April 2014 the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the law "On Restoring confidence in the judicial system of Ukraine". This bill established the legal and organizational framework for a special audit of judges of courts of general jurisdiction. On 26 September 2015 Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk claimed Ukraine's court system would be reformed following the example of the National Police of Ukraine, meaning employing new personnel en masse. In the last judicial reform introduced in 2016 the court system was completely overhauled, including the abolishing of certain courts. Advocacy operates in Ukraine to provide professional legal assistance. The independence of the lawyers is guaranteed. Only a lawyer represents another person in court, as well as defending against criminal charges. A new Supreme Court was launched