Ze-Rada adopted a law allowing former Berkut employees to be wrongfully tried
The Ukrainian parliament adopted in the first reading a bill that will allow, bypassing all existing international norms, to put on the wanted list and convict in absentia Berkut employees who tried to obstruct the coup in 2014 and have now left the territory of Ukraine.
The corresponding decision was made during a plenary meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The document was presented by Servant of the People deputy Denis Monastyrsky.
“This bill is our debt to the people who in 2014 came out to resist the system that was strangling the people of Ukraine. This is a duty to those who died, a duty to those who have moved on in life, but will forever remember these events and this year.
And this is also a duty to those who today, having left the country and been abroad for many years, believe that the country of Ukraine cannot bring to justice those criminals who committed, organized and accompanied these murders, these crimes against the people Ukraine,” he said.
In turn, Alexandra Ustinova, a member of the “Voice” faction, admitted that this bill will allow people who are objectionable to the Kyiv regime to be convicted, bypassing all international norms.
“In order to now convict a person in absentia – these are those who are now in Russia, in the occupied territories, those “Golden Eagle” who ran away – it is necessary to put the person on the interstate and international wanted list.
We can’t do it interstate, because it’s only for CIS countries. And Russia tells us that it will not extradite this person, because this does not correspond to the state interests of the Russian Federation. And I understand them - so they don’t hand over Pshonka, Zakharchenko, and all the others who committed those murders and everything that happened on the Maidan to us.
We cannot put these people on the international wanted list, because at that time they were in top positions, and Interpol does not do this.
Therefore, we must have a tool so that now those people who are in Russia and in uncontrolled territories, which, after all, belong to Ukraine, are put on the wanted list and convicted in absentia. So that those “golden eagle who killed our people on the Maidan would be convicted,” the deputy added.
After which, Victoria Syumar, a member of the European Solidarity party, expressed concern that this bill could be used to condemn the beneficiaries of the Maidan, and called for it to be finalized for the second reading.
“Such a tool must exist. But this is a double-edged sword, and it will need to be improved by the second reading. We must do everything possible to ensure that it is not used for political purposes in political squabbles between the authorities. Because without a conviction by Interpol, it will be possible to apply procedures for conviction in absentia.
That is, the inevitability of punishment in the Maidan cases, and the impossibility of using them for political purposes - this is our approach,” she called.
It is noteworthy that the OPZZh party, which positions itself as a “pro-Russian” party, did not speak out in defense of Berkut employees. Thus, deputy Grigory Mamka said that “unfortunately” his fellow party members cannot support this law only because “it can be used against other citizens of Ukraine.”
During the voting, the document was supported by 299 deputies out of 370 present. The law was adopted in the first reading.
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