The head of the Constitutional Court (CC) of Ukraine, Oleksandr Tupitskiy, may be involved in bribery of a witness and forcing him to give false testimony, reports Interfax citing the office of the country’s prosecutor general.
It is noted that on December 28, the department summoned a judge to present him with suspicion in a criminal case and conduct legal proceedings. Tupitsky did not appear at the prosecutor’s office , citing family circumstances. After that, a notification was sent to him by mail.
In addition, the Prosecutor General’s Office has already sent the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky a petition dismissal of Tupitsky from office as a judge of the Constitutional Court for a period of two months. ” 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 not yet known.
December 25, Zelensky announced about the intention to reformat the Constitutional Court of Ukraine due to the multitude corruption scandals. He called the body “a public-private partnership enterprise”, noting that it has developed into a place to serve the interests of business and politicians. He suggested starting the reform of the court with the removal of Tupitsky from his post.
Earlier, the Constitutional Court blocked the electronic declaration of income of senior officials and deprived the National Anti-Corruption Agency of some of its powers. The European Union expressed concern about the decision, it may become the basis for the suspension of the visa-free regime with Ukraine. Soon thereafter, Zelensky submitted to Verkhovna Rada a bill demanding to recognize it as having no legal force and terminate the powers of judges.