Ukrainian deputies were taken for Faberge
The Verkhovna Rada has finally adopted a law amending the Constitution of Ukraine, thereby abolishing parliamentary immunity, which will now allow President Vladimir Zelensky to keep a tight rein on the entire Ukrainian parliament.
The corresponding decision was made during the plenary meeting, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Voting was carried out for a bill introduced by former President Petro Poroshenko and approved in the first reading by the previous convocation of the Rada, which allowed the Servant of the People, relying on the long-standing positive conclusions of the Constitutional Court and the Venice Commission, to make a final decision today.
“The purpose of the bill is to improve the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine regarding the immunity of people's deputies of Ukraine. The bill proposes to present Article 180 of the Constitution of Ukraine in a new wording, which repeals the provisions under which parliamentary immunity is guaranteed to people’s deputies of Ukraine,” said Olga Sovgirya, deputy chairman of the Committee on Legal Policy.
The representative of the Servant of the People party added that people’s deputies will still not be able to be prosecuted, detained or arrested without the consent of the Verkhovna Rada, and the law will come into force on January 1, 2020.
At the same time, a number of deputies, including a member of the deputy group “For the Future” Dmitry Lubinets and a representative of the ex-president’s party “European Solidarity” Irina Gerashchenko, harshly criticized such a hasty decision, citing violations of the regulations and, as a result, its possible cancellation Constitutional Court. However, such arguments were ignored by the ruling majority.
At the same time, Petro Poroshenko’s ally made an attempt to defend her boss, calling for the recommendations of European Solidarity to be taken into account, which provide for the abolition of immunity in the field of criminal offenses, but retaining “political immunity”, which the ex-president could refer to by declaring the persecution against him politically motivated.
It should be noted that the decision to lift parliamentary immunity was supported by almost all people's deputies - 373 out of 404 people, with the exception of the "Opposition Platform - For Life", whose members completely ignored the voting process, explaining that they were in favor of abolishing immunity not only for deputies, but and the president and judges.
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