"The criminal case against the judge was opened on the charge of knowingly passing an unlawful ruling," Unian quoted Kiev Prosecutor Yevheniy Blazhyvsky as saying.
The Kiev District Court on Saturday suspended the Ukrainian president's decree on the early parliamentary vote. The ruling was made in response to a lawsuit filed by the bloc of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko against Yushchenko and the Central Election Commission (CEC). The secretariat of President Yushchenko filed an appeal later Saturday against the ruling,
The Kiev District Court passed its ruling following a decision by Judge Volodymyr Keleberda on Friday on securing the lawsuit by the Tymoshenko bloc, which suspended the president's decree.
The country's pro-Western ruling coalition collapsed on September 3 when the pro-presidential Our Ukraine withdrew from the alliance after Tymoshenko's bloc joined with the opposition Party of Regions, led by Russia-friendly Viktor Yanukovych, to approve legislation substantially cutting presidential powers. Yushchenko called the move a "constitutional coup."
Under the Ukrainian constitution, the president can dissolve parliament and call early elections if no majority coalition is formed within 30 days.
The coalition was officially dissolved on September 16 and, according to the Ukrainian law, elections must take place 60 days after parliament has been dissolved.
Analysts believe that both Yushchenko and Tymoshenko will stand for president in elections due in 2010. The two were allies in the 2004 "Orange Revolution," but have since drifted apart on a host of issues, including the recent armed conflict between Russia and Georgia.
Yushchenko blamed the recent collapse of the country's ruling coalition on Tymoshenko, saying that she had put "personal interests over national ones."
The parliamentary elections will be the third in Ukraine in less than three years.
