Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include comments by Oleksandr Tupytsky, head of the Constitutional Court.
As the Ukrainian leadership looks for a way to save the country’s anti-corruption institutions from dangerous court rulings, one of the judges involved in the cases is going on the offensive against President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a Nov. 2 comment to the UNIAN news agency, Ihor Slidenko, a judge of Ukraine’s Constitutional Court, alleged that Zelensky will bring about the collapse of Ukraine if he tries to dismiss the court and said that the president had “talked his way into 150 years in prison.”
Slidenko’s comments came as Zelensky attempted to ram a bill through parliament that would fire all 15 judges of the Constitutional Court due to their “loss of trust and wrongful judgments.” Earlier, the court issued two rulings that undermined the work of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and declared the country’s online asset declaration system for officials unconstitutional.
Those rulings delivered a potentially fatal blow to Ukraine’s already limited achievements in fighting corruption since the EuroMaidan Revolution that ended Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency in 2014.
But there’s one problem with Zelensky’s bill: It is likely unconstitutional. As a result, it will force the country and it’s lawmakers to make a difficult decision: to adhere to the letter of the law and kiss anti-corruption goodbye or to violate the Constitution to defend reforms and the country’s post-Maidan path.
It is not clear that Zelensky’s bill will muster enough votes to pass, despite the fact that his Servant of the People party holds 246 seats, a majority of the 423 seats, in parliament. But if it does, that will be dangerous for Ukraine, Slidenko alleged.
“I think that next comes the collapse of Ukraine and war, because, besides those 226 (votes), no one will recognize it,” he told UNIAN. “If there will be attempts to seize the Constitutional Court (building) by force… that will mean war.”
There are political forces that will never agree to the bill, Slidenko said, calling it “usurpation of authority.”
The next day, on Nov. 3, Oleksandr Tupytsky, head of the Constitutional Court, echoed Slidenko’s sentiments during a briefing with the media.
If the Constitutional Court cannot fulfill the functions of the only constitutional authority, it could “lead to a violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” he said. “How would this manifest itself? Any oblast would gain the ability to vote on the level of the oblast council for self-determination or secession from Ukraine.”
Resolving such a situation would require a rapid ruling of the Constitutional Court. “Otherwise there will be bloodshed. We cannot play around with this,” Tupytsky said.
Slidenko and Tupytsky’s comments mirrored the president’s own accusations against the Constitutional Court.
“The latest decision of the Constitutional Court is a direct and fast way to bloodshed,” Zelensky said in an audio address sent to his party’s lawmakers on Nov. 2. “If we don’t stop the chaos that the Constitutional Court is creating for money, there will be fighting in the streets. Are we ready to gamble with the life of our country? If not, we must take responsibility and act.”
Slidenko’s claim that Zelensky should face 150 years in prison was also a strange comment for a judge. In Ukraine, a person convicted on multiple criminal counts does not receive a cumulative prison sentence based upon all the charges. Rather, he receives the highest term required by any of the criminal charges. As a result, it is impossible to receive 150 years in prison in Ukraine.
Dodgy rulings
On Sept. 16, the Constitutional Court ruled that some provisions of the law on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine were unconstitutional, stalling the work of Ukraine’s most credible anti-corruption agency.
On Oct. 27, the Constitutional Court ruled to dismantle the online asset declaration system, canceling penalties for lying in officials’ asset declarations.
Slidenko voted in favor of both rulings. He then filed his resignation on Oct. 30, the only judge to do so. He cited pressure from Zelensky’s office.
If allowed to stand, the Constitutional Court’s rulings not only threaten to set Ukraine back in its battle with corruption, but also to harm its financial predicament and potentially derail its integration with the European Union.
Anti-corruption has been a key requirement for aid from the International Monetary Fund, which Ukraine needs to service its debts and stay afloat during the coronavirus crisis. And if the country’s progress on anti-corruption is nullified, the European Union could suspend its visa-free agreement with Ukraine, which came into force in 2017 and is one of the country’s major accomplishments after EuroMaidan.
Zelensky has accused two political factions of orchestrating the Constitutional Court cases and the rulings: the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform — For Life party, which holds 44 seats in parliament, and For the Future (Za Maibutne), a party connected to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, which has 24 seats.
Read more: Zelensky calls on his party to fire Constitutional Court; blames Medvedchuk, Kolomoisky factions
However, reining in the Constitutional Court is nearly impossible under the Constitution of Ukraine. The court answers to no one but itself. A judge on the court can only be fired by a vote of two-third of his or her colleagues.
This has left Zelensky with little choice but to violate the Constitution to remove the judges. Support for that move, however, is limited.
Members of the opposition — including the pro-Western opposition — have largely opposed the bill, viewing it as too risky.
Read more: As Zelensky seeks to fire Constitutional Court, experts look for alternative solutions
But with the Constitutional Court now threatening to hear cases on the country’s land reform, language law and Deposit Guarantee Fund, and the High Anti-Corruption Court — rulings that could erase other areas of progress since 2014 — the president wants the draft law firing the judges to remain a threat.
“This bill will hang above them like the Damocles sword (an impending disaster),” Zelensky said during a television appearance on the night of Nov. 2. “And they will not rule on the language law, on farmland sales, or (annul) the High Anti-Corruption Court.”
