EU assessing controversial draft law on corruption penalties, deputy PM says

The European Commission is assessing a draft law that proposes controversial changes to Ukraine's criminal code, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna told Interfax Ukraine on July 19.

Draft law no. 11340 proposes to amend Ukraine's Criminal Code, specifically regarding proceedings on crimes related to corruption and plea agreements.

If passed, the law would allow courts to enter into a plea agreement with someone charged with a corruption-related offense, whereby the punishment may involve a fine that would reimburse the damages caused by embezzlement, for example.

According to the draft law, the fine can range from Hr 204,000 ($5,000) to Hr 204 million ($58,000), depending on the severity of the crime.

Stefanishyna told Interfax Ukraine that the draft law should improve the effectiveness of plea agreements in line with global practices.

"Plea deals are a very common practice worldwide. This practice already exists in Ukraine. However, the current mechanism is ineffective, as noted in the evaluations of international experts," Stefanishyna said.

The draft law was passed by parliament in the first reading on July 18 despite risks pointed out by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor (SAP) and parliament's Anti-Corruption Committee, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak noted.

The Anti-Corruption Committee said that the law contains a "corruption-inducing factor."

Zelezniak said that the adoption of the law is a requirement of the EU's Ukraine Facility, but the law was "written in such a bad way by the Government, specifically by the Justice Ministry, and clearly not under normal consultation with colleagues from international partners."

Ukrainian blogger Ihor Lachenkov argued that the law "will allow top corrupt officials to buy themselves out of punishment for corruption simply by paying any amount of damage, even without exposing accomplices."

Lachenkov detailed the issues with the law in an Instagram post on July 18, providing the example of an official caught embezzling Hr 3.4 million ($82,000) while in charge of building fortifications.

"He'll be able to legally pay a part of the kickback...and that's it, he's free," Lachenkov said. The post has been liked over 125,000 times.

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The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek