Court recognizes as unconstitutional several NABU provisions

Ukraine’s Constitutional Court decided on Sept. 16 to
rule as unconstitutional several provisions of the law establishing the
National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU), its press service reported the same day.
The ruling was based on the request of 50 MPs submitted in July 2020.

The items deemed unconstitutional are mostly in regard
to the president’s authority with respect to NABU. Namely, that the president
had the authority to create NABU, to nominate candidates to the selection
committee of the bureau’s director, to appoint and dismiss the NABU director,
and to appoint members of the NABU audit board. The court declared these
provisions will become invalid in three months after its ruling.

The court also highlighted that it didn’t rule as
unconstitutional a legal item declaring NABU a “state law enforcement
body,” which had been put into question by some MPs.

Alexander Paraschiy: We see no
risks to Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure from this court’s ruling. All
the rejected provisions can be amended by parliament in the next three months,
while they aren’t critical to the functionality of the created NABU and its top
management.

Most importantly, NABU’s status as a law enforcement
body has been preserved by the ruling, which means all its activity in
investigations remains legal and all the criminal cases that it initiated
remain valid.