16 October 2025
On 15 October 2025, during the public part of the plenary session, the First Senate began deliberating the case upon the constitutional complaint filed by Oleksandr Melnyk in the form of written proceedings.
During the plenary session, the Judge-Rapporteur in the case, Oleksandr Petryshyn, presented the content of the constitutional complaint and the applicant's arguments. The judge announced that Oleksandr Melnyk had appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the constitutionality of Article 615.10 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (hereinafter, the “Code”).
The contested provisions of the Code establish that “criminal proceedings in the court of first instance for crimes punishable by life imprisonment shall be conducted collegially by a court composed of three judges, except for criminal proceedings in a court in which, prior to the introduction of martial law and the entry into force of this part, the composition of the court was determined with the participation of the jury”.
Based on the analysis of the constitutional complaint and the materials attached to it, it appears that Oleksandr Melnyk is a defendant in criminal proceedings entered in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations.
During the preparatory court hearing, he filed a motion for his criminal proceedings to be heard by a jury. The Nemyriv District Court of Vinnytsia Region, taking into account the provisions of Article 615.10 of the Code, denied his motion.
Disagreeing with the procedural decision of the court, he filed a constitutional complaint to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. In the applicant's opinion, the contested provision of the Code restricts the right of a person to have their case heard by a jury, which is a “flagrant violation of the right to equality before the law, the right to a fair trial and the right to defence”.
The Judge-Rapporteur informed that in order to ensure a full and objective deliberation of the case and the delivery of justified decision by the Court, he had sent requests to state authorities and scientific establishments in order to clarify scientific positions and scientific approaches to resolving the issues raised in the constitutional proceedings. The judges will be informed of the content of the positions expressed in the in-camera part of the plenary session.
After examining the case materials in the public part of the plenary session, the Court proceeded to the in-camera deliberations for a decision.
The plenary session was attended by the authorised representative acting on behalf of the person entitled to file a constitutional complaint, lawyer Ivanna Blokhina, and other citizens of Ukraine.
The video recording of the plenary session is available on the Court’s official website in the Section “Archive of Video Broadcasts of Sessions”.
