The Verkhovna Rada on July 13 approved stripping Mykhailo Dobkin, a lawmaker from the Opposition Bloc, of his immunity from prosecution and allowing his arest.
The Prosecutor General’s Office suspects Dobkin of abusing his powers during the allocation of land plots in Kharkiv when he was the city’s mayor in 2006 to 2010. The alleged losses are estimated at Hr 227 million.
Despite parliament’s approval of Dobkin’s arrest, he still has an opportunity to escape.
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko summoned Dobkin for interrogation at 2 p.m. on July 14. He claimed that he could not detain him without a court warrant, and was expecting a court ruling only on July 14.
However, Yegor Sobolev, a lawmaker from the Samopomich party, as well as Halia Chyzhyk from the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law and Oleksandr Lemenov from the Reanimation Package of Reforms rejected Lutsenko’s claims. They said prosecutors could have detained him immediately but failed to do so for an unknown reason.
Under Ukraine’s Criminal Procedure Code, a suspect in a corruption case can be detained if there is the risk of him or her fleeing. Subsequently a court must issue a warrant for the suspect’s arrest within 72 hours.
Even if a court issues a warrant, Dobkin will likely be released on bail, as this is required in financial cases as an alternative to detention.
The Poroshenko Bloc, People’s Front, Samopomich, Batkivshchyna and the Radical Party mostly voted for Dobkin’s arrest. Three offshoots of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions – the Opposition Bloc, Vidrodzhennya and the People’s Will – did not support the motion.
Parliament’s decision to arrest Dobkin came amid a rally outside the Verkhovna Rada’s building in favor of his prosecution and clashes between demonstrators and the police.
“This hall, two thirds of which are dependent on oligarchs, is afraid of the people,” Oleh Berezyuk, the head of the Samopomich faction, told Channel 112. “When there is tension and publicity, they have to start working.”
Dobkin claimed prosecutors did not have enough evidence and his case would “fall apart” without being sent to trial. He said he would arrive with his lawyers at 2 p.m. on July 14 to the Prosecutor’s General office to receive a notice of suspicion.
He called parliament’s decision “political” and said he had known that he would be the only lawmaker allowed to be arrested because of his political affiliation.
During the day, Dobkin looked nervous and spent most of the time in the company of his younger brother, Dmytro Dobkin, also a lawmaker from the Opposition Bloc.
In the morning, Dobkin claimed he had left a tracksuit, sneakers and a toothbrush in his car, which he said would be handy if he was sent to jail.
Lutsenko said on July 11 that prosecutors were preparing to charge Kharkiv Mayor Hennady Kernes in the same corruption case. Kernes has also been charged with kidnapping, torturing and threatening to murder EuroMaidan activists. The case against him was sent to court in March 2015 but he is not even under arrest, and the trial has seen no progress.
Dobkin and Kernes co-organized a separatist congress in Kharkiv on Feb. 22, 2014 and attended a pro-Russian rally on March 1, 2014. They were subsequently charged with infringing on Ukraine’s territorial integrity but these case have also seen no progress.
On July 11, the Rada also allowed prosecutors to press criminal charges against Oles Dovhiy from the People’s Will faction, Boryslav Rozenblat from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc and Maxim Polyakov from the People’s Front.
However, parliament rejected motions to prosecute Yevhen Deidei from the People’s Front and Andriy Lozovy from the Radical Party.
Prosecutors did not file motions to arrest Dovhiy, Deidei and Lozovy, while their requests to arrest Rozenblat and Polyakov were rejected by parliament.
