Top prosecutor criticizes parliament for rejecting prosecution requests

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko criticized
the parliamentary rules committee on June 21 for rejecting his requests to
submit for review the removal of political immunity of four MPs for criminal
prosecution. “This is a gross violation of the procedures law and the authority
of the procedures committee,” he said from the parliamentary tribune. “I view
this as an obvious unwillingness to forward my requests to the session hall.”

Three of the MPs – Oleksandr Vilkul, Dmytro Kolesnikov
and Serhiy Dunayev – belong to the Russian-oriented Opposition Bloc, while a
fourth MP, Oleksandr Ponomariov, is an independent from the Zaporizhia region
that borders Donbas. Vilkul is accused of land machinations, Kolesnikov is
accused of misappropriating property, Dunayev is accused of false tax
declarations and Ponomariov is accused of interfering with the work of a
journalist.

In early June, Parliamentary Speaker Andriy Parubiy
said the rules committee MPs were deliberately avoiding meeting in order to
avoid receiving copies of the prosecutor general’s request. The head of the
rules committee, Pavlo Pynzenyk of the People’s Front party, dismissed the
accusations and claimed that it was the prosecutor general who was in fact
violating rules, the pravda.com.ua news site reported.

Zenon Zawada: The rules committee
MPs certainly acted to prevent these MPs from facing criminal prosecution, but
their motivation is still unclear. They could have cut backroom deals with
these MPs, or they could be acting to prevent what could be perceived as
political persecution.

We don’t doubt the verity of the criminal accusations
against these MPs. But if the government is going to prosecute MPs, it would be
more convincing to the public if prosecutors selected coalition MPs, alongside
MPs of rival parties. Otherwise, such attempts will always be tainted with
suspicions of selective, politically motivated prosecution. Especially when
some of the criminal charges are as simple as incorrect tax declarations, which
many politicians are guilty of.

It’s also worth considering that this resistance to
the Poroshenko administration is being led by Pynzenyk, a People’s Front MP.
This is the latest evidence indicating that the People’s Front is currently raising
the stakes in negotiations for an alliance with the president’s party ahead of
the 2019 elections and could end up allying with the Fatherland party (led by
Yulia Tymoshenko), which is leading the election polls.