Kiev - Seven Ukrainian supreme court justices declared themselves too sick to work, bringing the high council's review of the country's long-running balance-of-powers dispute to a full stop, Interfax reported Thursday. The court had been scheduled to continue hearings on the dispute, pitting pro-Europe President Viktor Yushchenko against pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, but was unable to because the eighteen-member group lacked a sufficient quorum to continue, said Valery Pshenichniy, the acting court head.
"No work can be done," Pshenichny told reporters.
Ukraine's supreme court has been reviewing the pro's and con's of a political conflict begun in early April when Yushchenko ordered parliament dissolved and called for new elections.
Yushchenko has said the order was legal. Yanukovich has said the order was unconstitutional.
The court's consideration of the case had already been shambolic for weeks, with the political affiliations of supposedly independent justices being discussed in the press, and both sides accusing the opposition's justices of corruption.
Since court review of the case began on April 17, Yushchenko has sacked three justices and another two have resigned.
Yushchenko in the Wednesday evening speech declared the court "no longer legitimate", and announced he was instructing the country's prosecutor general to investigate the court for obstructing justice, among other charges.
Yushchenko's declaration was largely symbolic, as the country's prosecutor general, Viacheslav Piskun, is a Yanukovich loyalist. The move according to observers could however give Yushchenko legal grounds for declaration of martial law, if Piskun refuses to investigate the court as instructed by the President.
Parliament in a Thursday resolution branded Yushchenko's tactics as "dangerous...and potentially leading to a destabilization of the situation in the country."
Yushchenko and Yanukovich have met repeatedly in recent weeks in an attempt to defuse the crisis.
Last week the pair declared they had both agreed new elections should in fact take place, only to have negotiations fail shortly afterwards because of differing opinions on when that should be.
