What started as a crusade against corrupt parliamentarians is turning into yet another victory for corruption.

In the last two weeks, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has submitted to the Verkhovna Rada requests to strip legislative immunity from six lawmakers: Maksym Polyakov, Yevhen Deydey, Oles Dovhiy, Andriy Lozoviy, Borys Rozenblat, and Mykhaylo Dobkin.

All six are suspects in various investigations into corruption and economic crimes. Lutsenko has promised that even more investigations against lawmakers are coming.

But as the Rada’s Committee on Rules of Parliamentary Procedure got down to considering the requests on July 3, it became clear that while Ukrainian parliamentarians may get into brawls in the session hall, they are as united as ever when it comes to protecting their own from prosecution.
The committee, consisting of 11 lawmakers, has rejected all of the requests that it has considered so far – four out of the six. In each case, the committee members criticized the evidence given and other details of the cases.

Now it is up for the Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy, who is in the same party as two of the lawmakers that prosecutors are after, to decide whether to put the issue of their immunity from prosecution to the vote when Rada reconvenes on July 11.

Ukrainian law grants lawmakers full immunity from prosecution, and whether to strip them of this is up to their peers alone to decide.
In effect, that means prosecuting a member of parliament is virtually impossible. The procedure gives lawmakers numerous options for escaping prosecution, from influencing lawmakers in the committee or in the session hall, to fleeing the country on the eve of a vote to lift immunity.
But this has to change if Ukraine is to progress. Immunity shouldn’t bring impunity. It must be lifted or limited.