December 18, 2024
On December 18, 2024, the Second Senate, at the public part of the plenary session, in the form of written proceedings, initiated a deliberation of the case upon the constitutional complaint of Roman Chervinskyi regarding the constitutionality of Article 615.5 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.
During the plenary session, the Judge-rapporteur in the case, Oleg Pervomayskiy, outlined the content of the constitutional complaint and the Applicant’s substantiation.
According to the Judge-rapporteur, Roman Chervinskyi appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine with a petition to verify the compliance of Article 615.5 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (hereinafter, the “Code”) with Articles 3.2, 8.1, 8.2, 21, 22.1, 22.2, 29.1, 29.2, 55, 59, 63.2, 126.1, 129.2.1 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
In accordance with Article 615.5 of the Code, “if it is impossible to hold a preparatory court session, the precautionary measure in the form of detention chosen by the investigating judge, the head of the prosecution office during the pre-trial investigation shall be deemed to be extended until the relevant issue is resolved in the preparatory court session, but not more than for two months”.
According to the author of the petition, Article 615.5 of the Code “leads to the loss of effective judicial review and the possibility of imprisoning a person without investigating the substantiation of the accusation and the risks provided for by the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine”, violates the principle of equality of parties to the trial, and allows for unmotivated court decisions.
According to the Judge-rapporteur, the content of the constitutional complaint and the materials attached to it revealed the following.
The Applicant has the procedural status of an accused of committing a criminal offense under Article 426-1.5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The investigating judge of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv, by a ruling dated April 25, 2023, imposed on Roman Chervinskyi a precautionary measure in the form of detention until June 22, 2023, without setting a bail amount.
The term of this precautionary measure was repeatedly extended by the investigating judges of the said court.
The Kirovohradskyi District Court of Kirovohrad Region, by its ruling dated April 19, 2024, postponed the preparatory court session to May 24, 2024, and extended, in accordance with Article 615.5 of the Code, the term of the precautionary measure imposed on the Applicant in the form of detention until the issue is resolved in court, but not more than two months, i.e. until June 17, 2024.
The Kirovohradskyi District Court of Kirovohrad Region justified the decision that it was impossible to hold a preparatory court session and that it should be postponed, as well as the expediency of extending the term of detention of Roman Chervinskyi, by numerous and prolonged air raids and the failure of the defense lawyers to appear at the preparatory court session.
The Kropyvnytskyi Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the first instance court in its ruling dated May 8, 2024.
During the plenary session, the Judge also informed that in order to ensure an objective and comprehensive deliberation of the case and to deliver a reasoned decision, the Court sent a number of inquiries to the President of Ukraine, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration – Minister of Justice of Ukraine, as well as higher education and academic institutions on the issues raised in the constitutional complaint.
The Court examined the case file of the case and proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary session for a decision.
The public part of the plenary session was attended by the subject of the constitutional complaint Roman Chervinskyi, the authorized persons acting on behalf of the subject of the constitutional complaint, lawyers Andrii Yosypov and Kostiantyn Hloba.
The video recording of the plenary session is available at “Archive of Video Broadcasts of Sessions”.
