MP Herashchenko: Ukrainian Parliament to consider abolition of ‘Savchenko law’

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will consider abolition of the so-called “Savchenko law” in September.

MP from the People’s Front Party faction Anton Herashchenko said this on the air of 112 Ukraine TV channel, Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper reports.

“I am a self-critical person and I regret I voted for the ‘Savchenko law’. When that law was presented, patriotically, hiding behind the name of Nadiya, we voted for it, hoping for some better moments… It has ended up with that, for example, Shakhov [suspect in the Elita-Center construction scam] served six or seven years in prison. According to the ‘Savchenko law’ this period is counted as 12 years. He was released under house arrest and fled, and now the court cannot move on, the verdict cannot be delivered. This law is harmful, so, I guess, the issue on its abolition will be raised in September,” Herashchenko said.

November 26, 2015, the Parliament of Ukraine passed the draft law by Nadiya Savchenko on amendments to the Criminal Code, which came into force on December 24, 2015.

The law provides for equating one day spent by a person in a remand prison to two days in prison.

In June 2016, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko submitted to the Verkhovna Rada the proposals for adjusting the so-called “law of Nadiya Savchenko” in terms of its covering repeat offenders and those convicted of serious crimes.

Meanwhile, the “Donetsk Memorial” human rights organization views such an initiative of the authorities as a threat to the basic principles of human rights.