Zelensky: Situation with Constitutional Court is great start for upgrading judicial system
He said this on the air of the Freedom of Speech talk show on November 2, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.
“I believe that it doesn't matter which way will lead to victory. Why? In 5-10 years, even in a year, no one will remember our discussions and the statements by MPs who are afraid of unconstitutionality or any issues related to this bill. But everyone will remember how we began to renew the judicial branch of power, how we started from the most difficult stage of this reform - the composition of the Constitutional Court. Therefore, I believe that this is a great start to take advantage of this situation in order to start renewing the courts in Ukraine. And the most important thing is to renew people's trust in the judiciary,” Zelensky said.
He noted that during the election campaign, its participants talk about the introduction of land, judicial, healthcare reform, “and then, when it comes to real things, we say that everything is happening not according to the law, everything is somehow unconstitutional, let's take a balanced position."
“Forget about balanced positions, be serious, courageous, honest, be what the people of Ukraine think you are,” the President added.
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.
On October 29, President Volodymyr Zelensky held an urgent closed-door meeting of the National Security and Defense Council to determine measures for the state's immediate response to new threats and challenges to national security and defense.
On October 30, Zelensky tabled in the Verkhovna Rada the bill "On Renewal of Confidence in Constitutional Judiciary," which proposes to terminate the powers of judges of the Constitutional Court and declare its ruling on asset declarations "null and void."
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