Ex-President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma is confident that incumbent President Victor Yushchenko did not have any legal grounds to sack Suzanna Stanik from the post of the Constitutional Court judge.
L.Kuchma claimed this to UNIAN, commenting on President’s Decree of April 3, #297/2008, with which he cancelled the President’s Decree of March 25, 2004, #368 “On Appointing S.Stanik as a Constitutional Court judge”.
“This decree of the Guarantor of Constitution is surprising for me, as for the person, who issued this decree in accordance with the Constitution”, L.Kuchma claimed.
“In line with the law, a person is considered appointed as a Constitutional Court judge, if a respective Presidential decree is issued. Only the Constitutional Court may examine the legality of such decree. As it is known, nobody asked for the opinion of the Constitutional Court on this issue”, L.Kuchma said.
Besides, the President stressed that the procedure of taking oath by CC judges, which must be provided by the parliament, is not connected at all with issuing the decree on the appointment, and, moreover, cannot be a basis to cancel this decree.
“Thus, at present there are no legal grounds for the incumbent President of Ukraine to make a decision to cancel the decree on appointment of Suzanna Stanik as a Constitutional Court judge”, L.Kuchma stressed.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on April 3, President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko cancelled his Decree of 25 March 2004 #368 “On Appointing Suzanna Stanik as the Constitutional Court judge of Ukraine”. According to the document, S.Stanik was dismissed due to the “violation of the procedure of assumption of a Ukrainian Constitutional Court judge”.
On April 2, President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko, with his decree, reinstated Susanna Stanik on the post of the Constitutional Court judge.
In line with the document, the President ordered to reinstate S.Stanik on the post of the Constitutional Court judge “basing on part five article 124 of the Constitution of Ukraine, and due to the ruling of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated March 25, 2008”.
Victor Yushchenko sacked S.Stanik with his decree of May 1, 2007, due to her violating the oath. On July 18, 2007, the Shevchenkovskiy district court of Kyiv allowed the suit of S.Stanik against the President, and commissioned him to cancel his decree and to reinstate her on the post.
On March 25 of the current year, the Supreme Court of Ukraine reinstated S.Stanik on the post of the Constitutional Court judge. Thus, the Supreme Court, as the court of review, remained unchanged the ruling of the court of first instance.
