Draft law equating corruption to treason has been registered in Rada
Draft law No. 9659 is authored by MP Dmytro Razumkov and his group in the Verkhovna Rada, despite the fact that President Zelenskyy had stated that he would submit his own draft law to the parliament to equate corruption with high treason under martial law.
MP Dmytro Razumkov wrote about this on Facebook, Censor.NET reports.
"The Smart Politics team has registered draft law No. 9659, which supplements the Criminal Code with Article 111-3 and equates the punishment for corruption with the punishment for high treason during martial law. Corrupt officials will face 15 years behind bars or life imprisonment with confiscation of property," the statement said.
According to him, the NABU, SAPO, and the High Anti-Corruption Court will be in charge of the cases. And not the SSU, "through which the authorities will be able to put pressure on their political opponents and bury their own corruption cases, for which society demands punishment".
The MP said that the draft law stipulates that every top and mid-level official can be held accountable. In particular, the MP, the prime minister, a government official, the Presidential Office, and the president himself.
"Everyone should be equal before the law. And I hope that my colleagues from the Parliament will have enough conscience and responsibility to support our draft law," he added.
MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak noted that Razumkov's bill on this issue was the first to be registered in the Rada, so according to the presidential rules, an alternative bill will be considered only within 14 days after the MPs' bill.
According to Zhelezniak, Razumkov's draft law also left bail as an alternative.
According to Razumkov, the bail was left in place because its absence could become "a loophole for corrupt officials to dismiss the case in our country (there is a decision of the CCU) and in the ECHR".
On 27 August, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he intended to submit a bill to equate corruption with high treason in wartime.
