Stripping MP Artemenko of Ukrainian citizenship triggers his removal from elected office, - lawmaker Friz

President’s decision to revoke Ukraine’s nationality of Radical Party faction MP Andrii Artemenko automatically entails his removal from the elected office and does not require Rada to vote for the early termination of his powers.

Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction MP Iryna Friz wrote on Facebook, Censor.NET reports.

She confirmed that Artemenko had his Ukrainian nationality withdrawn under presidential decree.

"The presidential decree also means that Artemenko loses his status of a member of Ukrainian parliament, which does not require voting in the session hall since article 4 of the law on the status of the people's deputy of Ukraine stipulates that the powers of a lawmaker are early terminated in the event of citizenship withdrawal or permanent residence outside Ukraine," Friz wrote.

According to her, the prosecutor's office has now every reason to apprehend Artemenko and initiate pre-trial investigation against him into crime constituting offense under article 111 (high treason) of the Criminal Code.

Earlier, People's Deputy Dmytro Linko (Oleh Liashko's Radical Party faction) posted on Facebook a copy of the decree stripping MP Artemenko of Ukrainian citizenship.

As reported by The New York Times, Artemenko offered an alleged action plan to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict to Michael Flynn, the former U.S. president's national security adviser. The plan stipulates the withdrawal of all Russian forces from eastern Ukraine and the launch of an all-Ukrainian referendum to decide whether Crimea could be leased to Russia for a term of 50 or 100 years. The Radical Party parliamentary faction unanimously decided to expel Andrii Artemenko from its ranks.

Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea based in Kyiv initiated a criminal case into suspicion of MP Andrii Artemenko of high treason.