The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of former President and People's Deputy from the "European Solidarity" Petro Poroshenko against the current President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
Since the end of last year, Poroshenko has been trying to repeal Presidential Decree No. 27 of January 23, 2023, “On Some Issues Concerning Crossing the State Border of Ukraine under Martial Law.” This document put into effect a decision of the National Security and Defense Council, according to which the Cabinet of Ministers was to amend the rules for crossing the state border for civil servants, people's deputies, judges, and prosecutors, allowing travel only on official business trips.
Poroshenko believes that the decree violated his constitutional right to freely leave the territory of Ukraine. However, on December 1, 2023, border guards did not allow him to travel to Poland and the United States to participate in the Summit of the International Democratic Union. Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for the State Border Service of Ukraine (SBSU), reported that the travel ban was due to the fact that the Verkhovna Rada canceled the deputy's trip.
In his lawsuit, Poroshenko noted that the border guards were guided by new changes that came into effect after the issuance of the controversial presidential decree.
The Supreme Court initially returned Poroshenko's lawsuit because he missed the deadline to appeal Zelensky's decree. According to the law, the deadline for appeal is six months from the date of adoption of the document, which expired on July 25, 2023.
Disagreeing with this decision, Poroshenko appealed it to the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court. However, the court concluded that the decree of January 23, 2023 is an act of individual action that does not affect the rights of the plaintiff.
"The plaintiff's arguments that although the decree was not adopted directly regarding Petro Poroshenko, it nevertheless concerns his rights, freedoms, as well as the legally established guarantees for the activities of people's deputies of Ukraine, are unfounded," the court ruling states.
The court also emphasized that the incident with the travel ban on Poroshenko in December 2023 is not the subject of this dispute. The Grand Chamber's ruling entered into force on October 3 and is not subject to appeal.
