More than 500 appeals to have criminal charges brought against deputies of local councils

During the period of existence of the immunity of deputies of local councils, prosecutors of all levels have sent to village, settlement, town, district and regional councils 514 appeals on bringing of people’s deputies to criminal responsibility. 73 of these appeals have been satisfied, 326 – rejected, the rest are considered now. In particular, the local councils of the Dnepropetrovsk region rejected 30 appeals out of 37; 22 out of 29 appeals were rejected in the Sumy region and only 3 were satisfied. 14 appeals out of 16 presented to the organs of local self-government of the Ternopil region were rejected too. Not a single consent to bring the deputies of local councils to criminal responsibility was given in the Volyn, Donetsk, Nikolayev, Odessa and Khmelnitskiy regions.

We want to remind that on 6 October of the current year President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko signed the Law of Ukraine “On introduction of changes into the Law of Ukraine “On status of deputies of local councils””. The Law envisages the establishment of special order of bringing to criminal and administrative responsibility of deputies of local councils. This order presupposes preliminary consent of the corresponding local council concerning application to the deputy of the preventive measures in the form of written undertaking not to leave a place of residence or taking into custody in connection with investigation of criminal case, as well as the measures of administrative punishment.

The Law also regulates the order of consideration by the local councils of the question about the consent to bringing of deputies to criminal or administrative responsibility. In particular, it is stated that the appeal should be submitted by a prosecutor of corresponding level to the local council before bringing of accusation against a deputy, or issuing of the arrest sanction, or direction of the case on administrative offence to court.

According to the Law, the council considers prosecutor’s appeal within a month, takes the motivated decision and, not later than during three days, informs the prosecutor about the decision. The deputy has the right to take part in consideration by the council of the question about his immunity.