Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, may drag its feet on stripping several lawmakers of immunity from prosecution and let some of them escape justice altogether, civic activists and opposition lawmakers have said.
On June 21, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko filed motions to prosecute Boryslav Rozenblat from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc, Oles Dovhiy from the People’s Will faction, Andriy Lozovoy from the Radical Party, and Yevhen Deidei and Maxim Polyakov from the People’s Front. The lawmakers deny accusations of wrongdoing.
Parliament is expected to consider stripping them of their immunity from prosecution.
But Mykhailo Zhernakov, a judicial expert at the Reanimation Package of Reforms, said there might be not enough votes to prosecute the five parliamentarians.
Moreover, parliament may delay voting on the lawmakers until this fall, reformist lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko said.
Other observers are more optimistic.
“I think it will be very hard not to lift immunity (from Rozenblat and Polyakov) because there’s bullet-proof evidence in this case,” said Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board.
Dovhiy may also be stripped of immunity, but it is not clear if the other lawmakers will be prosecuted because the cases against them are not as solid, independent lawmaker Viktor Chumak said.
NABU cases
Rozenblat and Polyakov are suspected by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine of taking bribes worth $311,000 for illegally allowing amber production.
The scheme was uncovered through the infiltration of a NABU agent, Kateryna Sivokon, with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s cooperation.
The NABU has arrested six suspected intermediaries in the scheme, including security guards, two aides to lawmakers, one lawyer and the head of the secretariat of the Lawmakers’ Control, a group of Verkhovna Rada members.
Another lawmaker, Deidei, is 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.
Meanwhile, Poroshenko has been accused of trying to restrict the NABU’s independence due to its efforts to prosecute his associates, which he denies. On June 23, pro-presidential lawmakers again unsuccessfully tried to push through a government loyalist as a NABU auditor at parliament’s anti-corruption committee in an apparent effort to control the bureau.
GPU cases
Two other cases, those against Dovhiy and Lozovoy, were initiated by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Dovhiy is suspected of abuse of power in the allegedly illegal allocation of land, while Lozovoy is suspected of tax evasion.
Dovhiy is a loyalist of Poroshenko and has been instrumental in getting votes from his People’s Will faction for presidential initiatives.
Shabunin argued that the Dovhiy case could be a public relations stunt by Lutsenko, while Leshchenko said the prosecutor general could be targeting Dovhiy due to his long-running personal conflict with him.
“I think it’s a game,” Chumak said. “Poroshenko and Lutsenko want to show to the (Ukrainian) people and the Americans that they can sacrifice their friends. But, on the other hand, they understand that there will be no consequences for Dovhiy.”
Shabunin and Leshchenko also said that the Lozovoy case could be an effort to make the Radical Party more loyal to the Presidential Administration.
“They want to make Radical Party votes cheaper,” Shabunin said. “Each of their votes is pretty expensive for the Presidential Administration.”
The Radical Party and the Presidential Administration have denied accusations of buying or selling votes.
In May, Lutsenko said he would also submit a motion to strip Hennady Bobov, a lawmaker from the Vidrodzhennya faction, of immunity in a tax evasion case. But then Bobov escaped prosecution by promising to pay over $1 million in unpaid taxes as part of what critics saw as a shady deal with the authorities.
Previous cases
The Verkhovna Rada has abandoned its plans to lift all lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution, and previous attempts to prosecute Rada members have been unsuccessful.
Andriy Klyuyev from the Opposition Bloc, and Oleksandr Onyshchenko from the People’s Will faction – both suspects in embezzlement cases – fled the country in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Vadym Novynsky from the Opposition Bloc, Serhiy Melnychuk from the People’s Will and Ihor Mosiychuk from the Radical Party were stripped of immunity in 2015 to 2016. But they have not been arrested, and their cases have seen little progress.
Meanwhile, in May Leshchenko published what he says is the text of a draft motion to strip Opposition Bloc leader Yury Boiko of immunity.
Leshchenko said the motion had been blocked first by ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and then by his successor Lutsenko, who deny the accusations.
