The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, has asked the Ukrainian authorities to explain the basis of the court ruling that stripped a top member of the opposition of his parliament seat and immunity from prosecution.
On
March 6, the High Administrative Court of Ukraine ruled that
Serhiy Vlasenko violated the law by combining his
job in parliament with duties of a lawyer. He is former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s top legal counsel in court.
In
a statement on March 7 Jagland
said that “I
find it very unusual that a deputy elected by the people can be
expelled from parliament
at short notice and without having committed a serious crime.”
He
said he asked the Ukrainian authorities to “provide
an explanation for this action which may affect a fundamental
principle in a democracy, the sovereignty of a people to elect its
deputies.”
The court decision on
Vlasenko takes Ukraine further away from fulfilling its commitment
to make improvements in the legal system and straighten selective
prosecution to be able to sign an Association Agreement with the European
Union in November.
The decision on Vlasenko
cannot be appealed in Ukraine, but will be appealed in the European
Court for Human Rights, opposition members said.
