(AP) – Ukraine’s fired top prosecutor demanded Nov. 22 that the government respect a court ruling to reinstate him to his job.
Ousted Prosecutor General Svytoslav Pyskun said he would go to the presidential administration to insist on his reappointment.
“Selective implementation of court rulings must not exist in Ukraine,” he told reporters.
The court ruled Nov. 18 that Pyskun, who was fired last month by President Viktor Yushchenko for “ineffective work,” should get his job back. The government on Nov. 21 appealed the ruling.
Pyskun accused Yushchenko’s team of putting Ukraine in the awkward position of having two top prosecutors: Pyskun and Oleksandr Medvedko, whose appointment was approved by parliament earlier this month.
“Due to the illegal actions of the presidential administration today, Ukraine has two absolutely legitimate prosecutor generals,” he said.
Yushchenko countered in an interview with The Associated Press on Nov. 22 that the decision to fire a prosecutor general “is fully within the president’s jurisdiction,” alleging that corruption was behind the court ruling.
No one at the Prosecutor-General’s Office could immediately be reached for comment.
Earlier, Yushchenko accused Pyskun of dragging out many important cases, including the 2000 killing of an investigative journalist and the dioxin poisoning that took Yushchenko off the campaign trail for weeks last year.
The reformist opposition leader came to power after mass protests last year over election fraud. The protests became known as the Orange Revolution.
Pyskun called his dismissal politically motivated, and argued that he was fired because he opened a criminal investigation into a close Yushchenko ally – an investigation that was closed immediately after Pyskun’s sacking.
Pyskun was an unpopular figure, and many of Yushchenko’s Orange Revolution supporters criticized the president for not firing him earlier.
