(AP) – Lawmakers on Nov. 3 overwhelmingly approved presidential nominee Oleksandr Medvedko to be Ukraine’s new top prosecutor, replacing an unpopular prosecutor who was sacked last month.
Parliament voted 303-0 to confirm Medvedko, who had been serving as a deputy prosecutor general. The Socialists and a smaller party, United Ukraine, abstained, as did most of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s 40-person bloc.
“I understand the urgent tasks facing prosecutors and I know how to solve them,” Medvedko told lawmakers before the vote.
Medvedko proposed creating a special division to investigate corruption, one of this ex-Soviet republic’s biggest problems. President Viktor Yushchenko has made eradicating corruption a top priority.
Last month, Yushchenko sacked Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun, and his office later accused the prosecutor of dragging out important investigations.
Piskun, who has challenged his dismissal, was an unpopular figure, and many of Yushchenko’s Orange Revolution supporters criticized Yushchenko for not firing him earlier.
Piskun said he was sacked because he opened a criminal investigation into a close Yushchenko ally – an investigation was closed immediately after Piskun’s sacking.
