You're reading: Parliament rejects opposition bill to lift immunity of deputies and judges

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has rejected a bill of amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine on immunity from prosecution.

A total of 190 MPs out of the 401 registered in the parliament’s session hall on Tuesday voted for a resolution proposing to send the bill back for revision.

The head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy, Party of Regions MP Valeriy Pysarenko, said during the discussion that there is a conclusion of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on this bill.

“The Constitutional Court declared constitutional the provision under which the document proposes excluding Article 80 from the Constitution of Ukraine [the cancelation of parliamentary immunity],” Pysarenko said.

He noted that the Constitutional Court had declared unconstitutional the proposed provisions about the exclusion of Article 126 and 149, which concern the cancelation of judicial immunity and the procedure for the arrest and detention of judges of courts of general jurisdiction and the Constitutional Court.

The bill was registered on December 12, 2012 by MPs of the sixth convocation of the Batkivschyna faction, Mykola Tomenko, Serhiy Sas (members of the Batkivschyna faction in the current parliament) and Serhiy Mischenko (an independent lawmaker in the current parliament).