Head of Ukraine's Constitutional Court bought property in occupied territory in 2018 - Novikov

video

30.10.2020 10:21

Ukrinform

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine, with its decision to repeal Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code that provides for liability for inaccurate declaration of assets, went beyond all the norms provided by the Constitution of Ukraine, Chairman of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) Oleksandr Novikov has said.

He said this at an urgent meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on Thursday, October 29, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"The NACP did conduct inspections of judges of the Constitutional Court, but only yesterday did it learn why the chairman of the Constitutional Court made this decision so quickly. Because it emerged yesterday that he visited an occupied territory in 2018, that he bought property under the law of the aggressor country and that he did not indicate this in his asset declaration. We didn't even know that fact. With that decision, he released himself from responsibility, thus violating the fundamental principles that determine that a judge cannot be a judge in his own case," Novikov said.

In addition, according to him, Deputy Chairman of the Constitutional Court Serhiy Holovaty, under whose chairmanship the judges decided to hear this case in written proceedings, was also subject to Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code due to inaccurate declaration of assets.

"[Constitutional Court judges] Slidenko and Moisyk had signs of violating Article 52 of the Law 'On Corruption Prevention.' They abdicated their responsibility with their decision. This is about how the Constitutional Court went beyond all the norms provided by the Constitution," Novikov said.

On October 27, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine that provides for punishment for inaccurate declaration of assets.

In particular, the article establishes liability in the form of a fine or imprisonment for the submission by subjects of declaration of deliberately inaccurate information in the asset declarations of persons authorized to perform the functions of the state or local government.

On October 28, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) closed access to the unified state register of asset declarations in pursuance of a ruling of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The NACP stated that Constitutional Court judges had made this decision in their own interests, as the agency found signs of some of them declaring inaccurate information.

At the same time, the President's Office said that the head of state would use his right of a legislative initiative to restore the sustainable and most effective operation of the electronic declaration system and the inevitability of liability for intentional violations of these rules.

On October 29, President Volodymyr Zelensky convened an urgent closed-door meeting of the National Security and Defense Council to determine measures for the immediate proper response of the state to new threats and challenges to national security and defense.