Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, in a vote on Dec. 8 stripped Russian-friendly oligarch and current lawmaker with the Opposition Bloc Vadim Novinsky of his parliamentary immunity, allowing prosecutors to press criminal charges against him.
Novinsky is suspected of participating in a plot, along with several other loyalists of former President Viktor Yanukovych, to oust the late Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), the former leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The plot is alleged to have involved the illegal detention of a close church confidant.
Novinsky denies the accusations, calling the case politically motivated and fabricated.
However, as many as 228 lawmakers voted to allow the Prosecutor General’s Office to send the case against Novinsky to the courts.
Prior to the vote, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko told lawmakers that unless they strip Novinsky of his immunity, he would remain only a witness in the case, and there would be no opportunity to press criminal charges against him.
The criminal case goes back to 2013, when Yanukovych was still Ukraine’s president.
Yanukovych used to appoint loyalists to all top positions in the country, and wanted to replace Metropolitan Volodymyr with more loyal person, Lutsenko claims. Since Yanukovych did not have authority to dismiss Metropolitan Volodymyr, he enlisted the help of the interior minister at the time, Vitaly Zakhrachenko, then-Kyiv Police Chief Valeriy Koryak, and Novinsky, according to Lutsenko.
Lutsenko said the three illegally pressured Oleksandr Drabynko, a close confidant of Metropolitan Volodymyr, including detaining him under the pretense of protecting him. In this manner they intended to make him persuade Metropolitan Volodymyr to resign voluntarily.
Talking to fellow lawmakers before the vote, Novinsky denied being involved in any such plot. He noted that he was very close to Metropolitan Volodymyr, and was communicating with Drabynko with the blessing from Metropolitan Volodymyr, but only when Drabynko needed help.
“I will accept your decision calmly, whatever it will be,” Novinsky said before the vote. “Because I know that the truth is on my side, and the truth always wins.”
Novinsky also thanked the parliamentary regulation committee, which ruled that the appeal of the Prosecutor General’s Office to strip him of immunity lacked evidence that would prove his involvement in committing the crime.
Parliament Chairman Andriy Parubiy, however, urged lawmakers to support the vote.
“We don’t have to decide whether he is guilty or not. We have to allow the law enforcement bodies to hold an honest and independent investigation, and the courts to make the decision.”
During a press briefing shortly after the vote, Novinsky said that he would not “run away” or attempt to evade the investigation.
Read more about Novinsky here.
