You're reading: Rada rejects bill imposing ban to seize servers during raids

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada during the session on Feb. 23 rejected bill No. 3719 banning the seizure of servers during raids and toughening requirements to the petitions of investigators to raid companies.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the bill failed to have 226 minimum supporting votes at second reading.

“The bill proposes to ban temporary seizure of electronic information systems. Investigators are obliged to copy information, not to seize it. The use of special forces units during raids of companies will be permitted under a ruling of the investigating judge and only if the cases concern grievous and extremely grievous crimes,” one of the authors of the bill MP Vladyslav Holub said presenting the document when it was discussed at first reading.

He said that access of lawyers to the raid process is foreseen at any stage. The raids will be permitted as an exclusionary investigative activity if it is impossible to receive information in another way. The petition to raid companies is to have arguments of the necessity to raid companies and detailed descriptions of objects and persons that will be raided.

The bill bans special forces units from using masks that hide faces and show arms, apart from raids conducted in connection to grievous and extremely grievous crimes.