Court Ex-Head Maliarenko: Judges Of Supreme Court Of Ukraine Removed Unconstitutionally

Vasyl Maliarenko, who was the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Ukraine from 2002 to 2006, believes that the authorities began the process of unconstitutional dismissal of judges of the Supreme Court of Ukraine by creating the new Supreme Court.

Maliarenko stated this in comments to the Ukrainian News Agency.

"It is being recommended that one of the judges from the Supreme Court of Ukraine should be transferred to the Zaporizhia Court of Appeal, among other places, despite the fact that he has spent most of his life living and working in Kyiv. Meanwhile, there are 30 vacancies at the Kyiv Court of Appeal. The idea is to force these judges to submit letters of resignation. A process of clearing out people unconstitutionally is underway," he said.

According to him, the conflict between the new Supreme Court and the old Supreme Court of Ukraine arose at the very beginning of the creation of the new court.

"Nobody has dissolved the Supreme Court of Ukraine and, according to the law, a new one can be created only if the old one is dissolved. The removal of the ‘Ukraine’ from the Supreme Court of Ukraine does not constitute its dissolution. It is difficult for me to choose he right word, but this is savagery. This is not what could have been done. We have the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, all the agencies of Ukraine, the Supreme Court, and God knows what. According to the Constitution, the three branches of power are equal. This is open illogicality," he said.

Maliarenko believes that this was done with the goal of driving out all those who were appointed to the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, former Constitutional Court judge Viyacheslav Dzhun has described the situation involving dissolution of the Supreme Court of Ukraine as a disgrace to the judicial system.