The Rada has previously allowed corrupt officials to pay off prison: what are the “prices”?
18 July 2024 16:10
Today, on 18 July, the Verkhovna Rada voted in favour of Bill 11340 on liability for corruption, which will allow people to pay off their punishment by paying any amount of damage. This was announced by MP from the Voice faction Yaroslav Zheleznyak, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
“Despite the risks pointed out by the NABU, the SAPO, the Anti-Corruption Committee… the coalition passed the first reading in the parliament,”
– he said, adding that his party voted against the draft law.
According to the draft law, changes are planned to be made to the terms of the agreement with the investigation, but the provisions on the need to expose accomplices will be removed and the relevant provisions will be applied to the organisers of large-scale corruption schemes.
Anastasiia Radina, Chair of the Anti-Corruption Committee, said that draft law No. 11340 on improving plea bargaining does not meet the requirements of anti-corruption legislation and contains a corruption factor.
“The wording that will be submitted for the first reading allows a suspect or accused of a particularly serious corruption crime to receive a less severe punishment, provided that he or she simply partially compensates for the damage – without exposing other participants in the crime. Simply put, if draft law No. 11340 is adopted in its current form, every participant in a top-level corruption crime, including the organiser, will be able to simply pay off by offering any amount of money in exchange for a deal with the investigation. It will not even be necessary to fully compensate for the damage or losses caused,”
– radina said.
The conclusion of the Anti-Corruption Committee of the Verkhovna Rada states that “a separate provision containing a corruption factor has been identified in the draft law.
In particular, it creates an opportunity for a suspect or accused of committing a corruption-related criminal offence to receive a less severe punishment than provided for by the Criminal Code and the possibility to enter into a plea agreement.
“This creates conditions under which suspects or accused of corruption-related criminal offences, including organisers of such crimes, can pay off severe punishment without revealing any accomplices or providing information about other crimes they know about,”
– the Anti-Corruption Committee said.
What the controversial draft law provides for
The explanatory note to the draft law states that the draft law belongs to the priority areas of Ukraine’s commitments in the field of European integration, including international legal obligations and the law of the European Union.
Transparency International Ukraine notes that among the key key changes proposed by the government are
- enabling the parties to the agreement to agree on a penalty in the form of a fine even when it is not provided for in the sanction of the article. At the same time, the amount of such fines is quite large – from UAH 20.4 million for a serious crime;
- enabling the parties to the agreement to agree on a penalty in the form of imprisonment below the lowest limit, subject to the exposure of another person or compensation for damages. In this case, the person cannot use the exemption from serving the sentence, but must actually serve it;
- a clear definition that exemption from serving a sentence in connection with probation is possible in the event of an agreement. At the same time, it is proposed to increase the probationary period to 6 years, as well as the term of imprisonment that allows for release from it to 8 years (previously 5 years);
- allowing for the confiscation of property if a person is released from serving the main sentence due to probation;
- allowing for plea bargaining in particularly serious crimes under the jurisdiction of the NABU, subject to full or partial compensation for damages;
- introduction and approval of plea bargaining by the head of the prosecutor’s office;
- the possibility to change the agreement before the court is removed to the deliberation room, as well as to submit it to the court once again if the grounds on which the court refused to approve such an agreement are eliminated.
What fines will be imposed on corrupt officials in case of plea bargaining
According to the text of the draft law, officials who have committed a corruption offence will be able to pay a fine:
- from UAH 204 thousand to UAH 2.05 million for a criminal offence;
- from UAH 2.05 million to UAH 20.4 million for a misdemeanour;
- uAH 20.4 million to UAH 102 million for a serious crime;
- uAH 102 million to UAH 204 million for a particularly serious crime.
Reaction to the scandalous draft law
Thehead of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, Vitaliy Shabunin, wrote in his blog on the Ukrayinska Pravda website that the document was considered behind the scenes, with little discussion and no invitation to anti-corruption bodies.
He noted that the proposed bribery scheme would apply even to the corruption of oligarchs, such as the suspects Bakhmatyuk, Kolomoisky and Kaufman, as well as MPs who have recently been involved in corruption cases.
“It seems that the rush to pass the draft law is now connected with the desire to save MPs whose corruption cases have been increasing in recent years. The latest example is the suspicion from the NABU/SAPO to the ‘servant’ Zadorozhnyi this week,” Shabunin wrote.
Another reason for this is the great interest of the President’s Office in passing the bill. This will also allow the Office to solve the problem of corrupt MPs in its own way.
“Firstly, the latter, being under investigation by the NABU and the SAPO, pose a danger because they can expose corrupt practices of both representatives of the Presidential Office and other government officials. Secondly, it has long been no secret that over time, the Office has found it increasingly difficult to gather votes for the necessary laws. And when MPs from the pro-government faction are systematically caught in corruption and the authorities cannot cover them up, a riot may be brewing,” said the AntAC head.
He reminded that the current conditions for mitigating the sentence include a deal with the investigation and the exposure of all participants in the crime, and the authorities are obviously not satisfied with such deals.
Instead, the government’s draft law No. 11340 proposes to allow plea bargains to reduce the penalty for corruption offences below a certain threshold and to expand the possibility of applying probation even in particularly serious crimes. In both cases, exposure is not a prerequisite.
For example, it is proposed to replace the exposure of accomplices with full compensation for damage and a fine of up to UAH 204 million for a particularly serious crime. At the same time, no preventive measures are provided for serious criminal cases.
In addition, the draft law does not provide for the confiscation of property from suspects, which will allow them to keep the proceeds of corruption.
“He stole a billion, borrowed another 100 million, compensated them, paid another 200 million in fines and lived and enjoyed the 700 million he had ‘earned’,”
– Shabunin said.
After the media coverage, some MPs who voted in favour of the draft law began to apologise and said they would make amendments or vote against it.
In particular,MP Dmytro Gurin from the Servant of the People party apologised for supporting the draft law, saying that he had made a “mistake” and would vote against it in the second reading.
And MP Roman Hryshchuk from the Servant of the People party apologised and said that he would submit amendments to the second reading to remove all risks and leave only those provisions necessary for European integration.
