OP registered petition for second time to cancel "Lozovyi’s amendments"
For the second time, the President’s Office has approved the registration of a petition calling on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to submit and prioritize a draft law that would completely abolish the Lozovyi amendments.
This was announced on Facebook by the head of the AntAC Vitalii Shabunin, Censor.NET reports.
The petition calls on Volodymyr Zelenskyy to submit and prioritize a bill that will abolish the Lozovyi Ionushas amendments in full.
So far, the petition has gathered more than 24,000 votes out of the 25,000 required.
"On November 28, 2023, the court ruled that all court proceedings in the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) case against oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskyi should be terminated.
The defendants in other high-profile corruption cases also avoid responsibility for corruption. In particular, Vadym Alperin, whom the President called "one of the godfathers of smuggling" in 2019, as well as the defendants in the first episode of the Rotterdam+ case, in which Oleh Tatarov, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, acted as a lawyer for oligarch Akhmetov. The corruption case against Tatarov himself has also been successfully closed," the petition says.
It is noted that the reason for the closure of all these proceedings is not the absence of guilt of the suspects, but the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, which have been in force in Ukraine since March 16, 2018. They were adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of the VIII convocation on October 3, 2017, on the proposal of People`s Deputy Andrii Lozovyi, and therefore received the conventional name "Lozovyi's amendments".
"The main purpose of adopting these amendments was to create loopholes to avoid liability of officials and oligarchs for corruption. However, they are now also allowing people who have committed other serious or grave crimes, such as fraud and even rape, to avoid punishment.
The ambassadors of the G7 countries have already spoken about the need to repeal the Lozovyi amendments. The European Commission has demanded that the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) be revised to include these provisions in its report on Ukraine's progress towards EU accession.
On December 8, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine refused to abolish these harmful provisions in full and adopted draft law No. 10060, which was subsequently signed by the President of Ukraine. The deputies left in force the most harmful part of the Lozovyi amendments - that cases are subject to unconditional closure in case of expiration of the investigation period after suspicion. In practice, this provision is most often used for unreasonable and artificial closure of top corruption cases," the petition states.
By adopting this law, the deputies agreed with the position of the members and the chairman of the Law Enforcement Committee of the Parliament, Serhii Ionushas. After that, these harmful provisions should be called the "Lozovyi-Ionushas amendments."
According to Article 93 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine has the right of legislative initiative in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine considers draft laws identified by the President of Ukraine as urgent out of turn.
"Because of this, I call on President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to submit and prioritize a draft law that will ensure the abolition of the Lozovyi Ionushas amendments in full.
Namely, it will cancel paragraph 10 of part 1 of Article 284 of the CPC, which provides an unconditional basis for closing a case in the event of the expiration of the investigation period after suspicion. It should also restore the procedure for extending the investigation period, which was in force before the Lozovyi amendments, by providing for the possibility of extending the investigation period within the limits determined by law by the prosecutor instead of the judge (amendments to Articles 294, 295 of the CPC and the abolition of Article 295-1)," the author of the petition emphasized.
