Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has returned a motion to strip lawmaker Yaroslav Dubnevych of immunity from prosecution to the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, Lutsenko’s spokeswoman Larysa Sagran said on Facebook on Jan. 14.
Dubnevych, who is accused of embezzlement and did not respond to a request for comment, is a member of the pro-presidential Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction in parliament.
Sargan argued that some aspects of the motion contradict parliament’s regulations, and some of the claims had not been confirmed.
She said the Prosecutor General’s Office had asked anti-corruption prosecutors to work on the motion and provide better proof of Dubnevych’s alleged crime.
Meanwhile, Oleksandr Lemenov, an anti-corruption expert at the Reanimation Package of Reforms, argued this is a “political game” and an attempt by the authorities to save Dubnevych, an influential ally of President Petro Poroshenko, from prosecution.
In January 2018, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine arrested four executives of the Novoyarivska and Novorozdilska power plants, which are controlled by Yaroslav Dubnevych and his brother Bohdan, as part of a Hr 1.43 billion ($51 million) embezzlement case.
The Dubnvevych brothers have also been investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine as part of an investigation into alleged embezzlement at tenders held by state railway monopoly Ukrzalyznytsa.
