Dec 30, 2020
Ukrinform reported on December 29, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a decree suspending Oleksandr Tupytskyi as a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine for two months, the President’s Office has reported. According to the report, Zelensky said he had signed the decree ‘for the sake of restoring justice and resolving the constitutional crisis.’
The decision was made after the President’s Office received and processed a petition from the Prosecutor General’s Office, signed by the acting prosecutor general, to suspend Constitutional Court judge Oleksandr Tupytskyi from office for two months.
On December 28, Chairman of the Constitutional Court Oleksandr Tupytskyi was declared a suspect in influencing a witness through bribery, as well as giving knowingly false testimony as a witness. The case concerns the privatization of the Zuivsky Energy and Mechanical Plant in Donetsk region.
Tupytskyi did not show up at 09:30 on December 28 at the Prosecutor General’s Office to be handed a suspicion notice. He said he could not come for family circumstances and asked for his visit to the prosecutor’s office to be postponed until another day. The Prosecutor General’s Office prepared a petition to the President’s Office, which concerned permission to suspend Tupytskyi as head of the Constitutional Court.”
The Constitutional Court issued a response to President Zelenskyy’s decree: “Today, 29 December, at the official website of the President of Ukraine information was published on the Decree of the President of Ukraine on the removal of Oleksandr Tupytskyi from office of the Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine for the term of two months.
With regard to this, we inform about the following. Pursuant to Article 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine ‘the removal from office of persons appointed by the President of Ukraine shall be resolved by the President of Ukraine based on the submission of the prosecutor in the procedure established by the legislation.’
Independence of Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is ensured, in particular, by the special procedure and grounds for termination of powers, dismissal of Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine from office in the procedure established by the Constitution of Ukraine.
The decision on dismissal of Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine from office on grounds specified by paragraph two of Article 149-1 of the Basic Law of Ukraine is adopted exclusively by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at the special plenary hearing and no other
body or official may adopt such decision instead of it. Thus, a special plenary hearing of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine will be scheduled on the above matter.”