Ukraine court intends to overturn parts of lustration law

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine intends to overturn several key clauses of the main law on lustration, which is the process of removing corrupt state officials, and forbidding them from returning, who served a government that is determined to have engaged in criminal acts. A draft of the decision was obtained by the pravda.com.ua news site, as it announced on June 9, and confirmed by several MPs. The law on cleansing government was approved by Ukraine’s parliament in September 2014.

“Based on the information I received from several respected people in the Constitutional Court, they will overturn the main clauses of the law on cleansing government, allow Yanukovych’s closest entourage return to posts in the Cabinet and Presidential Administration, and return hundreds of prosecutors and tax department heads from the Yanukovych regime, who were forced to leave their posts as a result of the law,” said MP Yegor Sobolev, as cited by pravda.com.ua.

The judges could issue their ruling overturning the law’s main articles today, Sobolev said. “I understand that this is payment to the Opposition Bloc for its vote last week in favor of the constitutional amendments on courts and prosecutor offices proposed by (Ukrainian President Petro) Poroshenko,” said Soboliev, calling on the public to gather at the Constitutional Court to voice their protest. The attempt to overturn the law is being lobbied by former Presidential Administration Head Serhiy Lyovochkin, Opposition Bloc Lead Yuriy Boyko and Andriy Derkach, who served as an advisor to the prior government, he said.

Zenon Zawada: This latest turn of events is alarming not only because of the direct implications of overturning of the lustration law, which would complicate Ukraine’s Euro-integration (though it also has been criticized by Ukraine’s Western advocates). The claim that this is being done in exchange for the Opposition Bloc’s support for constitutional amendments not only implies that political agreements take priority over Western-oriented reforms, but also that the president continues to wield direct control over one of the nation’s highest courts and has the ability to determine its rulings.

So any overturning of lustration laws would have implications far beyond the issue of lustration itself. The bigger meaning this would have among the Ukrainian public is that President Poroshenko is directly cooperating with the Yanukovych entourage (which has been suspected all along), rather than trying to arrest and prosecute them.

Considering that corruption allegations have been surfacing against the president and his entourage on a monthly basis this year, such a court decision could mark a decisive turn in swelling opposition against the president, from which he won’t be able to redeem himself, regardless of how many pilots are freed from Russian prisons. Indeed Ukraine’s political knot is tightening with every passing week.