By Natalia Zinets
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian investigators formally notified the head of Ukraine's constitutional court that he is a suspect in a witness tampering case, the state investigation bureau said on Tuesday.
Ukrainian prosecutors said in December they were investigating Oleksandr Tupytskyi in connection with the suspected bribery of a witness that had taken place in 2018.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's administration has been locked in a standoff with the top court after it struck down key anti-corruption legislation in October, thereby hobbling Ukraine's chances of securing foreign aid loans.
Zelenskiy had initially sought to dissolve the court but parliament restored the anti-corruption legislation as an interim measure in December, paving the way for loan talks to restart with the International Monetary Fund.
Zelenskiy also signed a decree to suspend Tupytskyi temporarily, which the court said was unconstitutional.
Tupytskyi's office said in a statement on Tuesday that law enforcement officials had prevented him from entering the court premises.
"According to Oleksandr Tupytskyi, this is another attempt to unlawfully interfere in the activities of the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, obstruction of his official duties, aimed at blocking the work of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine as a whole," a statement from his office said.
"Failure to perform the administrative functions of the head of the court will destabilize the work of the entire institution," it added.