Verkhovna Rada is working on bill on complete exemption from criminal liability for AWOL - "servant of people" Venislavskyi
The parliament is currently working on a bill that provides for complete exemption from criminal liability if a person goes AWOL and voluntarily returns to the army.
This was stated by a member of the parliamentary committee on national security, defence and intelligence, MP from the "Servant of the People" party Fedir Venislavskyi in a commentary to hromadske, Censor.NET reports.
According to the MP, this draft law should differ from the previous law, which decriminalises the first UAU, in that criminal proceedings will not even be opened in the case of AWOL and voluntary return to the army.
"The current law works, but only when a person has already been notified of suspicion and the court decides to release him or her from criminal liability. We want to eliminate this possibility, so that a person is not even in the orbit of criminal proceedings if he or she voluntarily returns. And this is a deterrent for many people from returning to military service. That is, we want it to be possible to return to military service without fear of having a criminal record," Venislavskyi said.
The parliamentarian noted that the relevant developments of the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada will also be able to offset the factors of the decline in the rate of mobilisation. He acknowledged that there is a decrease, but it is allegedly "insignificant".
In addition, Venislavskyi assured that the information that there are currently more than 100,000 soldiers in the AFU is not true. The MP said that "there are fewer", but did not specify how many, noting that he could not disclose classified information.
As a reminder, on 20 August, the Verkhovna Rada passed a draft law in the second reading that provides for the possibility of exempting servicemen from criminal liability for unauthorised abandonment of a unit or desertion.
