Today, on March 15, 2023, the Second Senate of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, at the public part of the plenary session in the form of written proceedings, deliberated the case upon the constitutional complaint of Hanna Pleskach on the conformity of Article 459.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as “the Code”) with the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality).
As noted by the Judge-rapporteur Oleh Pervomaiskyi, the applicant appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to examine the compliance of Article 459.1 of the Code, whereby "judicial decisions that have entered into legal force can be reviewed in newly discovered or exceptional circumstances" with Article 8.1, Article 24.1, Article 55.2, and Article 129.2.1 of the Constitution of Ukraine
The subject of the right to constitutional complaint argues that Article 459.1 of the Code does not correspond to the Constitution of Ukraine, since, in her opinion, the disputed provisions of the Code establish the impossibility of reviewing the ruling of the investigating judge under newly discovered circumstances, which led to the fact that the complaint about the prosecutor's failure to comply with reasonable terms of the pre-trial investigation was not deliberated on merit at all. According to her, the refusal is based solely on the fact that the criminal proceedings were closed at the time of the ruling - although this circumstance later disappeared (which constituted a “newly discovered circumstance”)”.
The applicant notes that her right to access to the court has been violated, since she was deprived of the procedural opportunity to receive from the investigating judge an assessment of the legality of the prosecutor's actions in the criminal proceedings in which she was recognised as a victim.
The Judge-rapporteur pointed out that in order to ensure a full-fledged and objective deliberation of the case, he sent inquiries to state authorities, as well as a number of scientific institutions and establishments of higher education, requesting to deliver their opinions on the issues raised in the constitutional complaint.
The Second Senate of the Court proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary session for a decision.
The public part of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Court in the section “Archive of video broadcasts of sessions”.
