The Constitutional Court (CC) of Ukraine found it impossible to dismiss its chairman Alexander Tupitsky from office by decision of the country’s president Vladimir Zelensky or the petition of Prosecutor General’s Office , reports TASS citing the court’s press service.
Earlier, the office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine sent Tupitsky a suspicion of involvement in a criminal case on bribery of a witness and forcing him to give false testimony. The department sent Zelensky a petition for the temporary suspension of the chairman from work. He himself refused to leave the post.
So, the press service said that the demand of the prosecutor’s office is contrary to the Constitution of the country, and the possibility of removing Tupitsky should be determined exclusively by judges. The Constitutional Court also stressed that they will not be able to put the relevant issue to a vote until a specific measure of restraint in a criminal case is officially applied to its chapter.
The Prosecutor’s Office suspected Tupitsky of putting pressure on the witness on December 28. The criminal case is being conducted under the articles “Forcing to refuse to testify” and “Knowingly false testimony” of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Its details are still unknown. The head of the Constitutional Court himself did not appear at the prosecutor’s office, citing family circumstances. After that, a notification was sent to him by mail.
December 25, Zelensky announced about the intention to reformat the Constitutional Court of Ukraine due to the multitude corruption scandals. The head of state called the body “a public-private partnership enterprise”, noting that it has turned into a place to serve the interests of business and politicians. Zelensky suggested starting the reform of the court with the removal of Tupitsky from his post.
On October 27, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine blocked the law on the electronic declaration of income of officials, and also deprived the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption of a number of key powers. Zelensky did not recognize these decisions, in Ukraine began a constitutional crisis.