The Prosecutor General’s Office said on May 25 that it had sent the obstruction of justice case against Oleksandr Tupytsky, head of the Constitutional Court, to trial.
In December, prosecutors charged Tupytsky with unlawfully influencing and bribing a witness to induce false testimony. He denies the accusations.
President Volodymyr Zelensky suspended Tupytsky in December and fired him in March, using the corruption charges as justification. The Constitutional Court refused to implement Zelensky’s decrees, saying that they were unconstitutional.
Since then, Tupytsky has ignored summonses to attend bail hearings five times.
However, security guards have refused to let Tupytsky into the Constitutional Court building. The court is effectively chaired by Tupytsky’s deputy Serhiy Holovaty, who is seen as more loyal to Zelensky.
The events followed a bitter conflict between Tupytsky and Zelensky after a number of controversial decisions by the Constitutional Court and corruption scandals surrounding the court’s chairman.
Tupytsky has faced harsh public criticism since October, when the Constitutional Court issued a ruling that effectively destroyed Ukraine’s entire asset declaration system for state officials, eliminating a crucial pillar of the country’s anti-corruption infrastructure.
Tupytsky case
The charges against Tupytsky are part of a criminal case into the unlawful seizure of businessman Vladyslav Dreger’s Zuivsky Energy and Mechanical Plant in the city of Zugres in Donetsk Oblast in 2006-2010. At the time, Tupytsky was a judge in a district court in Donetsk.
In December Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s investigative program Schemes published audio recordings in which Tupytsky tries to dissuade Dreger from testifying against another controversial judge, Viktor Tatkov.
In response to Schemes’ publication, Tupytsky said that he does not have any relationship with the people named in the report. He added that investigators had questioned him on the issue and he could not reveal that information.
The tapes published by Schemes were recorded by Dreger, who was cooperating with investigators, in October 2018.
In 2009, Anton Yaitsky, a frontman for controversial judge Viktor Tatkov, received a 40% stake in Dreger’s Zuivsky Energy and Mechanical Plant, according to Ukrainian investigators. Tatkov allegedly got the stake in exchange for his help in commercial disputes.
In the tapes, Tupytsky also discusses having received a 4% stake in the Zuivsky Energy and Mechanical Plant for being an intermediary between Tatkov and Dreger.
In 2009, Borys Rumak, an apparent frontman for Tupytsky, became a co-owner of the factory. Tupytsky had previously granted Rumak power of attorney to drive his car.
In 2018, Tupytsky proposed meeting Tatkov and splitting the company among the three co-owners involved, according to the recordings.
If Tatkov refused, Tupytsky threatened to have a criminal case opened against him for “financing terrorism” in the Russian-occupied territories and then extort money from him to resolve the situation.
In the tapes, Tupytsky also appears to extort a bribe for helping Dreger and Tatkov solve their legal problems.
Tatkov was the chairman of the High Commercial Court under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Tatkov and his ex-deputy, Artur Yemelyanov, were officially charged in 2016 with illegally interfering in the automatic distribution of cases and issuing unlawful rulings under Yanukovych, after which Tatkov fled to Austria.
