SBI initiates investigation on high treason of Constitutional Court's head, illicit alienation of land in Crimea under Russia's laws

KYIV. Oct 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) has launched a pretrial investigation into the facts of unauthorized occupation of a land plot committed by a group of persons, and high treason of the head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Acting Director of the SBI Oleksiy Sukhachov has said.

"According to preliminary information, the head of the Constitutional Court in July 2018, as part of a group of persons, arbitrarily occupied a land plot not allocated to him in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of Ukraine and entered into a deal, which recognized the powers of officials of the Russian authorities to make records of the alienation of the Ukrainian land plot and its assignment to the category of those falling under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation," the SBI press service said.

Thus, the head of the Constitutional Court probably committed an act to the detriment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, state and economic security of Ukraine, which qualifies under Part 2 of Article 197-1 and Part 1 of Article 111 (unauthorized occupation of a land plot, high treason) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The sanction of the article provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment from 12 to 15 years with or without seizure of property.

Earlier, Head of the Constitutional Court Oleksandr Tupytsky, at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday, said that the court had received a summons by e-mail on the morning of October 30 to summon him to the SBI for questioning as a witness, and said he did not plan to come to questioning. He also said that the relevant case concerns the events of 2013-2014, in which he has already been interrogated twice.