Ukraine speaker submits five requests for removal of political immunity

Requests from the Prosecutor General’s Office to remove political immunity from five MPs were submitted on June 21 by the parliamentary speaker to the rules committee, the pravda.com.ua news site reported, citing the speaker’s press secretary. Yevhen Deydey of the People’s Front party and Oles Dovhiy of the Will of the People group face criminal charges of alleged theft, Andriy Lozovoy of the Radical Party faces a tax evasion charge, and Maksym Poliakov of the People’s Front and Boryslav Rosenblat of Poroshenko Bloc face bribery charges. MP Iryna Lutsenko, the wife of the Procurator General, said the same day that she expects parliament will vote to remove their immunity.

Zenon Zawada: The presidential administration has several goals in pursuing such criminal cases, which may or may not ever be heard in court. Firstly, these cases fulfill a policy of targeting some dispensable mid-level politicians for prosecution in order to give the impression to the public, particularly Western officials, that it’s fighting corruption. It’s no coincidence that the MPs were selected from a broad spectrum of factions, including one from the president’s own faction.

Secondly, the cases are a means of pressuring rival factions (in Lozovoy’s case), as well as keeping their own MPs in line and following the rules. Every few months, the president sees the need to wave his baton in order to maintain order and remind the MPs, particularly those of his own faction, that they are vulnerable. After all, charges such as tax evasion could be brought against virtually any MP. So while this development could be perceived as positive on the surface, we view it as negative ultimately. Rather than striving for genuine rule of law and equality before the law, Poroshenko and his team are maintaining a system of selective prosecution and intimidation, particularly of rivals.