Parlamentarian immunity in Ukraine

Society perceives “parliamentary immunity” as a formal permission for a deputy to do anything and not to bear responsibility for their unlawful actions.

As a doctor of jurisprudence, I would like to draw attention to the fact that from the legal point of view, what today we call the “immunity of a people’s deputy” as such is not. In fact, this is a special procedure for prosecution, and it is not due to the fact that deputies are allowed to do everything but to prevent the use of criminal investigations as a means of political struggle. A special procedure stipulates that the submission by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the proclamation of a people’s deputy to criminal liability should first be considered in the specialized parliamentary committee, and then at a session of the Verkhovna Rada. If political motives were not found, then you can start an investigation. In unstable political realities, this is a way to prevent situations when political opponents are arrested, thrown into Bucscher only because they criticize the authorities. It is for this purpose that this immunity was created, which is called parliamentary immunity.

I want to emphasize that in the last convocation, when the appeals were made by the general prosecutors, the deputies voted overwhelmingly for the possibility of conducting investigative actions and lifting the so-called integrity. Today it is important to prevent manipulations and populism on this topic. It is necessary to get out of legal facts.