Judge Syuzanna gets physical..

According to an article in today's 'Delo' business newspaper, "the first session of Constitutional Court examining of the legality of President's Decree dismissing the Verkhovna Rada was reminiscent of judical Comedy Club, rather than the work of authoritative lawyers. [Heard that somewhere before...]

There was a paucity not only of a constructive position by the judges, but also of elementary respect for one other. Throughout the entire session journalists present in the courtroom continually laughed aloud at the mutual verbal needling of members of law court."

The deputy chairman of the C.C. Syuzanna Stanik, who is leading the court's examination into the legality of the President's decree, was involved in a scuffle outside the court when she tried to force through a blockade of opposition demonstrators. In the altercation, she gave BYuT VR deputy Mykhaylo Volynets a couple of 'judicial slaps' across the face when no-one was watching. See video here [Better than clawing which leaves parallel scratch marks that can be used as evidence - any lawyer will tell you that.]

Astonishingly, according to the SBU press-centre, the SBU [security service] and Prosecutor General are continuing their investigation into alleged corruption and 'actions that include indications of a series of crimes' by Judge Stanik.

Yuliya Tymoshenko called the the events taking place in the C.C 'a farce'.

"But today we saw that deputies and peaceful citizens where quite severely beaten up by Popkov's police. It was Mr Popkov that controlled this operation."

It had been the same Serhiy Popkov, now deputy minister of internal affairs, that had given the order in 2004 to 'smash up the orange Maidan'. "Our political force will not recognize any decision of the C.C," she added.