Ukraine prosecutor to examine case of sacked judges

KIEV, May 2 (Reuters) Ukraine's prosecutor general said today his office would investigate a complaint from two judges dismissed by President Viktor Yushchenko during his long-running struggle for power with the prime minister.

The judges of the Constitutional Court, which is examining Yushchenko's dissolution of parliament, have said the president had no legal grounds to dismiss them.

Yushchenko has issued two decrees dissolving parliament and calling a June 24 election to the chamber.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, Yushchenko's rival from the 2004 ''Orange Revolution'' protests that swept the pro-Western president to power, refuses to comply.

The prime minister and the majority in parliament backing him have sought a Constitutional Court ruling on the decrees.

''The prosecutor general examines cases presented by individual citizens. Issues not connected to citizens' rights are ... for the Constitutional Court,'' prosecutor general Svyatoslav Piskun told Fifth Channel Television.

Yushchenko dismissed the judges this week, accusing them of ''violating their oath''. There has been prolonged debate over the impartiality of the court, whose 18 judges are appointed by the president, parliament and legal experts.

Both the dismissed judges were appointed under former president Leonid Kuchma, who has been denounced by Yushchenko as corrupt. One judge had been embroiled in allegations that a relative had received unauthorised gifts.

It is, in any case, unclear whether the Court will produce a ruling as the president's first decree on dissolution, its point of reference, has been superseded by the second decree.

Yanukovich and his allies, friendlier to Moscow, have proposed simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections.

The three parties underpinning the government denounced the judges' dismissal late yesterday and accused Yushchenko of ''conducting an anti-constitutional revolt''.

They asked the European Union and the Council of Europe, a major rights body, to ''intervene immediately in the situation and send representatives to take on the role of intermediary''.

Yushchenko beat Yanukovich in a re-run of a rigged 2004 presidential election after weeks of protests. Yanukovich made a comeback and was named prime minister after his party finished first in the last parliamentary election, just a year ago.

Protests for and against the decrees have been relatively small and Western countries have stayed out of the dispute.

REUTERS ABM RAI1956