The Prosecutor General’s Office has filed notices of suspicion for ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and former Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych in a case of usurpation of power, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lustenko said on Facebook on Sept. 6.
The usurpation of power case against Lavrynovych is expected to be sent to trial within two months, while the usurpation case against Yanukovych will be sent to court after the high treason trial against him is completed, Lutsenko added.
Yanukovych is accused of using the Constitutional Court to rubber-stamp several decisions to usurp power in 2010.
Specifically, the Constitutional Court canceled the 2004 constitutional amendments on expanding the Verkhona Rada’s powers and thus increased Yanukovych’s authority. The court required other state bodies to enact its ruling.
Lavrynovych is accused of abusing his powers by enacting that court ruling himself, through publishing the pre-2004 Constitution. According to the investigators, only the Verkhovna Rada actually had the right to implement the Constitutional Court’s decision.
Lavrynovych denied the accusations. “How can this be a violation if I fulfilled my functions?” he told Channel 112. “…The Justice Ministry publishes all Constitutional Court rulings, and it’s the ministry’s duty.”
The court also issued a ruling under which lawmakers could switch from opposition parties to Yanukovych’s Party of Regions. Judges of the Constitutional Court received $6 million from the Party of Regions when the court made this decision, according to the “black ledger” of the Party of Regions – an alleged record of off-the-books payments by Yanukovych’s party, part of which was published last year.
Another Constitutional Court decision aimed at usurping power was a ruling authorizing the 2010 judicial reform, as a result of which Yanukovych stripped the Supreme Court of important powers and transferred them to more loyal courts, according to investigators.
Despite the charges against Yanukovych and Lavrynovych, there are still no formal charges against Constitutional Court judges accused of helping Yanukovych usurp power. Several of them are incumbent judges of the court.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has been accused of covering up for the judges for political reasons.
“Giving notices of suspicion to Yanukovych and Lavrynovych without giving such notices to Constitutional Court judges who actually made the decisions on usurpation of power is nonsense,” lawyer Kostiantyn Likarchuk, an ex-deputy chief of the State Fiscal Service, said on Facebook.
Lutsenko has claimed that his agency cannot charge them because judges cannot be prosecuted for issuing rulings. However, lawyers Vitaly Tytych and Roman Maselko, and former judge Mykhailo Zhernakov told the Kyiv Post this explanation was nonsense, saying that judges can indeed be prosecuted for making unlawful rulings.
According to the wording of the Ukrainian Constitution, “a judge cannot be held responsible for a ruling that he has passed, except (in the case of) his committing a crime or infraction.”
In 2014, the Verkhovna Rada fired five Constitutional Court judges for violating their oath by letting Yanukovych usurp power. Lawmakers urged the president and the Council of Judges to fire the rest of the judges implicated in the alleged usurpation.
However, President Petro Poroshenko and the council have not done so. In July Poroshenko also signed legislation that gives him effective control over the Constitutional Court.
Yanukovych has also been charged with high treason and corruption. The high treason trial was postponed for two weeks on Sept. 6.
Last year prosecutors also sent an embezzlement case against Lavrynovych to court. So far, this is the only corruption case against a top Yanukovych-era official submitted to trial.
