Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, voted to strip three lawmakers of immunity from prosecution during its evening session on July 11.
The vote followed Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s move when on June 21 he filed motions to prosecute Boryslav Rozenblat from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc, Oles Dovhiy from the People’s Will faction, Andriy Lozovy from the Radical Party, and Yevhen Deidei and Maxim Polyakov from the People’s Front.
The Rada allowed prosecutors to press criminal charges against Dovhiy, Rozenblat and Polyakov, while two other lawmakers – Deidei and Lozovy escaped sanction.
Dovhiy is suspected of abuse of power in the allegedly illegal allocation of land in the city of Kyiv. He’s a loyalist of Poroshenko and has been instrumental in getting votes from his People’s Will faction for presidential initiatives.
During his speech in parliament, Dovhiy admitted he was one of those who backed the nomination by Poroshenko to appoint Lutsenko – then a leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction – as prosecutor general on May 12, 2016.
“At the same time, I never broke the law,” Dovhiy said during his remarks. “But I’m a responsible person, so I call on parliament to support the prosecutor’s motion.” In his defense, he claimed that there was no evidence against him. However, as many as 251 lawmakers voted to allow the Prosecutor General’s Office to send the case against Dovhiy to the courts.
Rozenblat and Polyakov are suspected by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine of taking bribes worth $311,000 for illegally allowing amber production.
Both Rozenblat and Polyakov denied accusations of wrongdoing.
“I don’t blame anyone, but I will plead not guilty in court,” Rozenblat said in his final remarks.
The Rada didn’t support the prosecutor’s request to arrest both of the lawmakers.
At the same time, the Rada failed to strip Yevhen Deidei, a lawmaker from the People’s Front from immunity, falling 33 votes short of minimum 225 to back the decision. Voting against were Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko and Vadim Novynsky, one of Ukraine’s rich and powerful oligarchs and a member of the Opposition Bloc faction, which is made up predominantly of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s loyalists. Novynsky himself was stripped of immunity in late 2016.
Deidei was suspected by the NABU of unlawful enrichment based on his electronic asset declaration. The motion for Deidei’s prosecution was initially blocked by Lutsenko in May, who cited alleged technical errors, but that was unblocked under apparent public and Western pressure.
“The case is a political stunt,” Deidei said in Verkhovna Rada after Lutsenko read the motion. “I haven’t done anything they are accusing me of.”
Lutsenko said the vote will help to “clean up” Ukraine’s parliament.
The last case – that against Lozovy — was initiated by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Lawmakers, however, didn’t support the prosecutor general’s decision to prosecute Lozovy of the Radical Party, who was suspected of tax evasion.
After the vote, a former journalist and now lawmaker from Poroshenko’s Bloc, Mustafa Nayyem, said all the lawmakers should be stripped of immunity as their behavior was exactly what “for years” helped Ukraine to top the lists of most corrupt nations.
