You're reading: Yanukovych reinstates Stanik as Constitutional Court judge

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has canceled a decree by Ukraine's third president, Viktor Yushchenko, which previously annulled a decree by his predecessor Leonid Kuchma dated March 25, 2004 regarding Siuzanna Stanik's appointment as a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

A relevant decree was signed and posted on the president’s Web site on April 28, 2010.

As reported, on April 3, 2008, Ukrainian President Victor Yuschenko canceled Kuchma’s decree regarding Stanik’s appointment as a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine "in connection with the violation of the procedure for granting a post to a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine."

Stanik was reinstated in accordance with a ruling issued by the District Administrative Court of Kyiv. And Kyiv Appeals Court upheld this ruling on June 24, 2009.

On July 29, 2009, the press service of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine said the head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has no legal grounds to include Siuzanna Stanik as the 19th member of the court, as the court currently has all 18 judges, including those appointed under the president’s quota.

The press service said that is working in full and its legitimacy cannot be questioned.

"As for the situation with Stanik, under the current conditions, this is in the competence of Ukraine’s president," the Constitutional Court’s press service said.