On December 13, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine immediately supported the draft Law “On Amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses and other legislative acts of Ukraine on the specifics of performing military service under martial law or in a combat situation” (No. 8271). The bill was passed on the fifth day after registration without public discussion or even an attempt at public communication. Many lawyers and jurists are already criticizing the bill and demanding that Volodymyr Zelensky veto it because they think it will have the opposite effect of what is expected. Instead of preventing the commission of war crimes and administrative offenses, it will cause a violation of the right to a fair trial and discrimination against the military personnel themselves. Why explained military lawyer Roman Likhachev.
- Bill No. 8271 was considered in a very short time. It was registered on December 8, and already on December 13 it was considered. All that remains is the President’s signature. That is, we all understand that someone is very interested in this situation. What do we see in general and why now, including our Chuguev human rights group, “Legal Hundred” and other organizations opposed this bill. First of all, they make changes that, let’s say, attack the rights of military personnel.
- Which ones exactly?
- For example, let’s take Article 69 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. This is a regulatory article that if there are several mitigating circumstances, then the so-called punishment “below the lowest” can be imposed. Because the punishment for such crimes as disobedience, non-execution of an order, unauthorized abandonment of a military unit is from 5 to 10 years. Literally today, after almost three months of investigation, I received a decision from the investigating State Bureau of Investigation that the serviceman was not guilty. But all this time he was in custody, and suspicion changed, and everything else.
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I will give an example as it was before. Not all such terminators among the fighters who went to the tank with one machine gun and had such good training, it is clear that a person commits a possible crime by disobeying an order. Perhaps she had certain subjective reasons for this. If earlier prosecutors used the so-called agreement on sentencing “below the lowest”. Now this will become impossible.
Servicemen will receive from 5 to 10 years in prison under this number of articles. That is, as corrupt officials. This is a crime along with the crime of corruption. This is generally wrong, because we are talking about the military who protect us on the front lines, and we will equate them with punishments for corrupt officials. There are still a large number of such cases. And people have been at the front for almost 10 months, there is exhaustion - moral, psychological.
- Do you mean that perhaps this is where it is better to work with than to increase the punishment?
- Yes. Among my clients there are those who already have two dead in the family - a father and one of the brothers. The mother left the only son, but he is not demobilized, although this is provided for. There is a story of three brothers, one was shot by orcs at the beginning of the war, the other died in the direction of Bakhmut, and the third serves in the terrorist defense and there are no grounds for his release.
I had a case when a serviceman who was diagnosed with a tumor asked to be released from the unit for an operation. They didn’t let him go. He left on his own. It is clear that he did something wrong, but he was not sent for treatment. Accordingly, proceedings were initiated against the person for unauthorized abandonment of the unit. Three months he did not pay money. When the fighter returned, he was informed that he was a deserter. It took the man another three months to prove his innocence, the case was closed.
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In addition, legislators have amended Article 75 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. According to it, it was impossible to impose a sentence with a probationary period for corruption articles. And now for these soldiers. And here they were compared with corrupt officials …
- In your opinion, why has this bill been dragged through so quickly right now?
- No one wants to honestly admit that there are certain problems with rotations, the psychological state of servicemen. I communicate with them a lot, I protect them. I will say this - not everyone is ready to die, because there is not always proper preparation.
Many questions about business trips of the lower level, the middle level, the provision of equipment, narrow down the rights. There really is a question here, and I believe that punishments from 5 to 10 years can cause public outcry. As I understand it, we are simply creating the conditions for actually being afraid that if they do something. Because they are immediately taken into custody. And pledges usually amount to about 500 thousand hryvnias for corrupt officials. Whether you’re guilty or not, they’ll figure it out later.
- If the bill is signed, what is the risk for the military?
- Here it should be said that changes are being made to administrative offenses in relation to alcohol intoxication. But these articles rely more on increasing the level of responsibility and increasing punishment. In addition, many powers are granted to the military law enforcement service. Now there are many military dissatisfied with what is already there, so you should definitely expect indignation.
Also, at present, no one objectively understands the execution of the order. Even while in court, when they read out the evidence that the company commander, who says that he doesn’t care that there is no equipment, you must go with machine guns and take these positions. Here the question is about the conduct of hostilities, about how to assess the expediency of carrying out an order. So, I think the bill should be carefully finalized and take into account all the above circumstances.
Recall, an interview with of the people’s deputy from the party “Voice” Roman Kostenko, who has been fighting in the southern direction since the beginning of the full-scale invasion: “The Russians have not even shown everything they are really capable of.”
Source: Fakty
