OP is again promoting bill on fake repeal of Lozovyi’s amendments - AntAC
The Cabinet of Ministers has submitted a new bill to repeal the Lozovyi amendments, which does not completely repeal these amendments.
This was reported by the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, Censor.NET reports.
Thus, on 30 December 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers registered a new bill No. 12367, which attempts to "formally and partially repeal the Lozovyi amendments".
"In the bill, the Cabinet of Ministers left in place the mechanism that once helped to close the corruption case of the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Oleh Tatarov," the AntAC writes.
Bill No. 12367 is scheduled to be considered by the Verkhovna Rada this week.
Olena Shcherban, Deputy Executive Director of the AntAC, said that if the law is passed, the problem with manual closure of TOP corruption cases will not be solved.
"The courts will continue to be able to easily close cases against TOP corrupt officials by simply refusing to extend the investigation period. This means that investigations of high-level corruption will be useless," she explained.
Why won't the new bill completely repeal the Lozovyi amendments?
The bill refuses to cancel the procedure for extending the investigation period by the investigating judge introduced by the Lozovyi amendments. Prior to Lozovyi's amendments, the pre-trial investigation was extended by prosecutors.
"The procedure for extending the investigation period through the investigating judge allowed the authorities to influence the investigation of grand corruption cases and close cases when it was impossible to establish manual control over investigators and prosecutors.
It was thanks to this provision that the case against the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Oleh Tatarov, who was suspected of aiding and abetting in bribery for falsifying an expert opinion in a scheme to embezzle funds for the construction of apartments for the National Guard, was closed," the AntAC noted.
AntAC's proposals to remedy the situation
The AntAC continues to demand that the mechanisms of artificial closure of TOP-level corruption cases be eliminated:
- restore the mechanism of extending the pre-trial investigation by the prosecutor instead of the court (which existed before the Lozovyi amendments) by amending Article 294(3) of the CPC, amending Article 295 and cancelling Article 295-1 of the CPC;
- to eliminate the grounds for unconditional closure of a case if the pre-trial investigation period has expired - Article 284(1)(10) of the CPC.
