Zelenskyi signs a decree dismissing Tupytskyi for two months
Photo: OP
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed a decree removing the Chairperson of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Oleksandr Tupytskyi from the post of a CCU judge for two months.
The press service of the Office of the President reports.
"I am signing this decree in order to restore justice and resolve the constitutional crisis," the head of state stressed.
The decision was made after specialists from the Office of the President received and processed a request from the Office of the Prosecutor General, signed by the Acting Prosecutor General, to remove Judge Oleksandr Tupytskyi from the post for a two-month term.
Deputy Head of the Office of the President Andrii Smirnov noted that the petition was sent to fulfill Art. 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which provides that officials appointed by the President of Ukraine are removed from office at the request of the prosecutor, and the decision is made by the President.
"We have set no reservations about the possibility of its consideration and adoption of relevant decisions," he said.
"Of course, I support the President's decision to remove Tupytskyi from his post as a judge of the Constitutional Court. First, it's a logical continuation of the process we started in the parliament when we collected 226 signatures of people's deputies appealing to the CCU to resign voluntarily because now there is no public trust in this institution," the head of the "Servant of the People" party Davyd Arakhamia said in the Verkhovna Rada.
He also added that the Chairperson of the CCU was informed about the suspicion by the Office of the Prosecutor General by articles demonstrating a conflict of interest.
According to experts in constitutional law, neither the Constitution of Ukraine nor the Law of Ukraine on the Constitutional Court determines a special procedure of such procedural action, i.e. the removal of a CCU judge from the post, according to the representative of the President of Ukraine in the Constitutional Court Fedir Venislavskyi.
"It's not a dismissal, it's not the termination of a judge's powers, this is a temporary measure provided by the CPC of Ukraine, Article 154. The President of Ukraine issues decrees to implement the Constitution and laws of Ukraine. According to Article 154, a person appointed by the President of Ukraine may be suspended from the post for up to two months during the pre-trial investigation. That is, the President of Ukraine acts in full compliance with his constitutional powers, removing Tupytskyi from the post of CCU judge for two months," Fedir Venislavskyi said.
