Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo on September 14 requested the Constitutional Court to establish the constitutionality of the legal provisions concerning the prosecutor general’s membership in the Supreme Security Council (SSC), IPN reports, quoting the Prosecutor General’s Office.

In the last meeting of the SSC on August 10, in which the Council’s president reproached the prosecutor general for the absence of criminal proceedings against a number of persons, including representatives of the current parliamentary opposition, this also asked for a report on a number of pending criminal cases.

The PGO considers such an approach is inadmissible and against the law and it affects the principle of separation and balance of powers in the state and cannot be tolerated in the future. It ascertained that initially the Law on State Security No.618 of 31.10.1995 didn’t stipulate that the prosecutor general is a member of the SSC.

The amendments to the law were made at the suggestion of a group of Democratic MPs (legislative initiative No. 436 of 23.11.2016). According to the PGO, Parliament at that moment violated procedurally the constitutional norms concerning the lawmaking process. Also, the law runs counter to the Constitution as modern democracies do not know such practices. The PGO considers the effect of the challenged provisions, by which the prosecutor general was declared an ex-officio member of the SSC, should be suspended.