The Constitutional Court of Ukraine has released a decision by which it recognized as unconstitutional a number of provisions of the law of Ukraine on the prevention of corruption and criminal liability for declaring false information.

"The Constitutional Court of Ukraine believes that the establishment of criminal liability for declaring deliberately false information, as well as deliberate failure by the subject of declaring is an excessive punishment for committing these offenses," the court said in its decision, released on Wednesday evening.

"The negative consequences experienced by a person prosecuted for committing crimes under Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine are disproportionate to the damage that has been caused or could have been caused in the event of the relevant actions," the Constitutional Court said.

The Constitutional Court said in its decision that the declaration of deliberately false information and declarations, as well as the deliberate non-submission of the declaration by the subject should be the basis for other types of legal liability.

"If the legislator does not comply with the criteria for criminalization, a situation may arise when an act that is not characterized by the nature and degree of social harm sufficient for criminalization is not characteristic of the legislator [...] as a result, legislative grounds are created for unjustified criminal prosecution for acts for which a less severe legal responsibility, and this violates the constitutional principle of the rule of law," the Constitutional Court said.

The Constitutional Court also said in its decision that "anti-corruption should be carried out exclusively by legal means, in compliance with constitutional principles and legislative requirements in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine," despite the fact that corruption is one of the main threats to national security.

Having studied the corpus delicti under Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the Constitutional Court made the conclusion that the use of legal structures in which there is no clear list of laws makes it impossible to unambiguously define the circle of subjects of the crime, and reference norms make it impossible to establish the circle of their addressees, as a result, persons who cannot be participants in the legal relationship of declaring, and therefore deliberately did not fulfill such an obligation, may be held liable for deliberate failure to submit a declaration.

The court also said that the legislator "did not comply with the principles of justice and proportionality as elements of the principle of the rule of law," thus, Article 366-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine contradicts Part 1 of Article 8 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

As reported to Interfax-Ukraine, a number of materials were selected from this case into separate proceedings, which will be considered separately, and decisions will also be made on them.