Batkivschyna faction leader Arseniy Yatseniuk has said that the Central Election Commission (CEC) should not register MPs until the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the Constitutional Court of Ukraine make decisions in the case on the annulment of Serhiy Vlasenko's parliamentary mandate.
“We draw the attention of the Central Election Commission and the
leadership of parliament to the fact that it’s easy to predict the
decision of the European Court of Human Rights, and until the European
Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court make decisions any
registration of the next MP means that the there will be two Ukrainian
MPs who were [elected to parliament] on the same list,” he said at a
meeting of the conciliatory council of the leaders of parliamentary
factions and committees in Kyiv on Monday.
Yatseniuk said that the opposition sent a motion to the
Constitutional Court of Ukraine early on Monday regarding the official
interpretation of constitutional provisions on the possibility of
issuing court judgments in cases similar to the case of Vlasenko.
He also said that the ECHR had received a motion concerning the
decision of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine to deprive
Vlasenko of his mandate.
On February 22, Vlasenko said that he had appealed to the Council of
Lawyers of Ukraine to cancel his advocacy certificate in order to avoid
any “political insinuations.” He said that, according to the current
legislation, a lawyer’s right for advocacy was canceled from the day of
filing an appeal to cancel his advocacy certificate. He added that still
he has the right to defend Tymoshenko.
On March 6, the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine (HACU)
stripped Vlasenko of his parliamentary powers complying with a lawsuit
filed by Verkhovna Rada speaker Volodymyr Rybak. The speaker noted in
the lawsuit that Vlasenko combined his parliamentary powers with legal
practice.
Vlasenko said that he planned to protest the HACU’s judgment in the European Court of Human Rights.
Vlasenko is a defense counsel for Tymoshenko in a number of criminal
cases. He has repeatedly stressed that he is a defense counsel rather
than a lawyer of the former prime minister.
