Will Tyshchenko be deprived of his mandate: what MPs say
25 June 2024 16:53
ЕКСКЛЮЗИВ
Today, Mykola Tyshchenko, who was expelled from the Servant of the People faction last year for travelling to Thailand, was served with a notice of suspicion on the fact of unlawful imprisonment of a former soldier in Dnipro (part 2 of article 146 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), but he is still a member of the Ukrainian parliament. Komersant investigated whether Tyshchenko will continue to be an MP, or whether he may be deprived of his mandate and under what conditions.
Under what conditions can an MP be deprived of his mandate?
As Serhiy Yevtushok, a member of the Verkhovna Rada’s Regulatory Committee, explained in an exclusive commentary to 
, an MP can be deprived of his or her mandate only under the law on the status of an MP.
“It (the law – ed.) has several points when an MP is deprived of his or her powers: his or her personal statement, death and withdrawal from the faction. But this does not apply to Tyshchenko, because he is a majoritarian, he was elected in Kyiv in a constituency,”
– yevtushok said.
He noted that a mandate can also be revoked by a court verdict or by deprivation of citizenship.
“Tyshchenko is only subject to a court sentence. Then it comes into force and he is deprived of his MP status in court. If a preventive measure is chosen after the trial, Tyshchenko will not be deprived of his mandate. We have MPs who have been subjected to a preventive measure and continue to be MPs,”
– yevtushok said.
The reality of deprivation of mandate after the court verdict
According to Yulia Yatsyk, head of the Verkhovna Rada Subcommittee on Law Enforcement, it will be very difficult to prove in court the suspicion under part 2 of Article 146 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which Tyshchenko is charged with.
“If there is a court verdict that has entered into force, that is, after the appeal has considered the case, there may be grounds for deprivation of the mandate. But I have never heard such stories in my life. Now it’s just a suspicion that needs to be proven. I have some doubts, as a former lawyer who had experience in defending people under Article 146 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, about proving a conspiracy to deprive people of their liberty. It is very difficult to prove. If it (the events in Dnipro – ed.) was impromptu, then there will be no conspiracy. A preliminary conspiracy is different,”
– yatsyk said.
In her opinion, Tyshchenko will not be deprived of his mandate.
“I think the next elections will be held while the court cases in this case are pending. Because, due to the lack of judges, the courts of first instance consider cases for more than 2 years, and then there is the appeal, etc. So I think Tyshchenko will not be the first majoritarian MP to be deprived of his mandate,”
– she summed up.
The essence of Tyshchenko’s case
on 20 June, a fight broke out in Dnipro between Dmitry Pavlov (Son), a former member of the Kraken special unit, while he was walking with his newborn child and MP Mykola Tyshchenko’s bodyguards. Footage posted on social media shows that three men in military uniforms on the city’s central avenue twisted the man severely. In one of the subsequent videos, MP Tyshchenko also appeared there.
After the incident went public, the MP said that he was allegedly checking the activities of fraudulent call centres and bot farms in Dnipro, and that Dmitry Pavlov was allegedly their security chief. The MP did not explain who the people who attacked the former military man were.
Five days after the incident, Tyshchenko’s apartment was searched and he was served with a suspicion notice on the fact of illegal detention of a former serviceman.
“The investigation established that this was done by prior conspiracy by a group of people and with the use of physical force and special means,”
– the State Bureau of Investigation said.
The SBI also does not rule out additional criminal proceedings in the case of the MP.
