On October 25, the Law Enforcement Committee reviewed draft law No. 12039 for its second reading and, after agreeing on several amendments, recommended that Parliament adopt it.
Compared to the version of the law presented before the first reading, the following changes have been made:
- the maximum amount of fines as an additional penalty has increased from UAH 102 million to UAH 204 million for particularly serious crimes;
- explanations have been added to allow for dismissal with probation for corruption if the parties to the agreement have agreed on this. That was not previously established;
- if a person involved cooperates with the investigation, it is now possible to negotiate a more lenient punishment, not limited to imprisonment. Before the first reading, it was established that a more lenient sentence could only take the form of imprisonment.
However, unfortunately, the MPs did not consider our recommendations:
- establish the mandatory application of special confiscation when concluding plea agreements in corruption cases, provided there are grounds for it, and enhance the provisions regarding the confiscation of property;
- specify that agreements can be concluded in criminal proceedings where there is no question of causing losses;
- grant the court the authority to request the collected materials of the pre-trial investigation or require the prosecutor to submit such materials to the court along with the indictment and the plea agreement.
Transparency International Ukraine believes that this version of the law is unlikely to positively affect the implementation of plea agreements. The new provisions appear to shift the focus from qualitatively achieving the goal of punishing corruption to the fiscalization of the operations of NABU and SAPO.
It is important to note that last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine sent official letters to the Office of the President, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the Verkhovna Rada, urging the adoption of this draft law before the end of October. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, because Ukraine has not yet met the Ukraine Facility Plan’s requirement to enhance the regulation of plea agreements, the country risks losing 4 billion euros in funding.