Oleksandr Tsukerman, a person involved in the "Midas case," has filed a second lawsuit with the Cassation Administrative Court within the Supreme Court against President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to revoke the decree under which sanctions were imposed on Tsukerman. The court decided to open proceedings in the administrative case based on Tsukerman's lawsuit against Zelenskyy. Previously, the court had left the application without motion, as the content of the statement of claim did not provide proper justification as to which rights, freedoms, or interests were being violated regarding Tsukerman, UNN reports.
Details
As stated in the court ruling, Tsukerman, through his representative—attorney Oleksandr Yevheniyovych Kruhliak—sent a lawsuit to the Supreme Court as a court of first instance against President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and third parties—the NSDC, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the Ministry of Economy—requesting that the Presidential decree imposing sanctions on Tsukerman be declared illegal, invalid, and revoked.
The attorney, referring to the Law "On Sanctions," noted that restrictions may be applied to foreign states, foreign legal entities, legal entities controlled by foreign persons, foreigners, stateless persons, as well as entities engaged in terrorist activities, whereas their application to citizens of Ukraine is permitted only in exceptional cases expressly provided by law, among which the plaintiff does not include himself.
The attorney also notes that neither the NSDC decision nor the contested decree provides any grounds for applying sanctions to Tsukerman, who is a citizen of Ukraine and does not belong to the circle of subjects to whom, according to the law, sanctions may be applied.
Furthermore, the attorney drew attention to the fact that 18 types of sanctions were applied to Tsukerman simultaneously, representing the vast majority of the entire permissible list. At the same time, no justification for the need to simultaneously apply such a number of restrictive measures is contained in the specified documents, which "is a violation of the principle of proportionality and legislative requirements regarding information on the expected consequences of applying each type of sanction."
"The nature and content of the sanctions applied to the plaintiff indicate their formal application without proper individualization, assessment of the necessity of each individual restrictive measure, and establishment of its connection with specific actions of the plaintiff," the court ruling states.
At the same time, as indicated, a significant portion of the applied sanctions, by their legal nature, is objectively oriented toward legal entities, business entities in a certain field of activity, and market operators, rather than a natural person.
"The Supreme Court ruled: to open proceedings in the administrative case on the lawsuit of Oleksandr Tsukerman against the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with the participation of third parties who do not assert independent claims regarding the subject of the dispute on the side of the defendant—the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine—to declare the Decree of the President of Ukraine illegal, invalid, and to revoke it in part," the court ruling says.
The case will be considered under the simplified legal proceedings by a panel of five judges. The hearing is scheduled to take place on July 9 at 16:30 in the court premises at the address: Kyiv, Kniaziv Ostrozkykh St., 8, building 5.
The court ruling is dated June 4.
Addendum
On November 10, NABU and SAPO reported on an operation to expose a corruption scheme influencing strategic state-sector enterprises, particularly JSC "NNEGC "Energoatom". The operation was named "Midas."
NABU released "tapes" in a large-scale corruption case in the energy sector, where code names are mentioned. Meanwhile, SAPO showed an "interesting artifact" with Russian symbols that law enforcement found during a search at the office of one of the co-organizers of the corruption scheme.
SAPO later disclosed details, noting that the main activity of the criminal organization was the systematic receipt of improper benefits from "Energoatom" counterparties in the amount of 10 to 15% of the contract value.
Law enforcement established that the function of legalizing illegally obtained funds was assigned to a separate office of the criminal organization located in the center of Kyiv. "In total, about 100 million USD passed through the so-called 'laundry'," NABU stated.
On May 14, the main figure in the "Midas case"—businessman Timur Mindich—filed a lawsuit with the Cassation Administrative Court against President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The hearing of the case regarding Mindich's lawsuit against the President will take place on June 29 at 10:00.
On May 15, Tsukerman filed a lawsuit with the Cassation Administrative Court within the Supreme Court against President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to revoke the decree under which sanctions were imposed on Tsukerman. However, the court left the application without motion, as the content of the statement of claim did not provide proper justification as to which rights, freedoms, or interests were being violated regarding Tsukerman.