Ex-head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Tupytskyi had his Ukrainian passports canceled
To Oleksandr Tupytskyi, the former head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine canceled domestic and foreign passports, in connection with which the Podilsky District Court of Kyiv postponed the court hearing in the criminal proceedings against him until June.
Last year, the court renewed the proceedings and at the end of October allowed Tupytskyi to participate in the meetings remotely, through video communication using personal technical means.
An electronic digital signature is required to access the “Electronic Court” system. While trying to generate Tupytskyi’s signature, technical difficulties arose — the system could not recognize it. It turned out that as early as December 2024, the Department of Internal Affairs in Zakarpattia Oblast recognized his passports as invalid. The migration service did not provide an official explanation for the reasons for canceling the documents.
“We referred to the fact that these conclusions are internal official documentation and cannot be provided both to the defenders and to Tupytsky himself. Internal departmental information that is not subject to disclosure to any persons. We are solving the issue of applying to the administrative court to recognize the illegal actions of the migration service.”, — lawyer Maksym Bakharev said.
Prosecutor Oleksiy Donsky noted that cancellation of passports does not mean loss of citizenship. According to him, in the response of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a passport issued in 2023 is mentioned, but Tupytsky also had previous documents.
During the meeting on April 18, Tupytskyi’s defense attorney asked to allow the client to participate in the hearing through alternative programs — Telegram, WhatsApp, or Zoom — that do not require a digital signature. However, the current legislation does not provide for such a possibility. The prosecutors objected, demanding to deprive Tupytskyi of the right to remote participation altogether, believing that he is intentionally disrupting the proceedings and could return to Ukraine. The defense noted that the case of Tupytskyi’s poisoning is being investigated in Austria, and he is under guard.
“He has well-founded fears to come to Ukraine and stay here, because even in Austria he was found and committed criminal acts.” Bakharev explained.
Judge Lyudmila Kazmyrenko rejected the defense’s request and left Tupytskyi’s participation through the “Electronic Court” valid. The next meeting is scheduled for June.
We will remind that in March 2022, Tupytskyi left Ukraine and went to Austria, citing a threat to himself and his family. As a result, court proceedings against him were temporarily stopped. In March 2024, a law came into force that allowed video conferences to be held outside the court during court sessions, after which Tupytskyi’s cases were reopened.
Currently, the defendant’s participation in the proceedings is in jeopardy due to the annulment of the documents. The Podilsky Court of Kyiv is considering the case on Tupytskyi’s accusation of bribing a witness with the purpose of falsifying testimony in favor of the former head of the Higher Economic Court, Yuriy Tatkov, in the case of illegal seizure of assets of ZAO “Zuyivskyi Energomechniky Zavod”. He is also accused of perjury in 2018-2019, which was accompanied by falsification of evidence.
