Rada and Poroshenko granted amnesty 2017 to “ATO” militants under the Christmas tree
Today the Verkhovna Rada approved bill No. 4255 on an amnesty in 2016 with the proposals of President Petro Poroshenko.
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226 people’s deputies cast their votes “for” the minimum required for the passage of the bill.
The law applies, in particular, to, as stated in its text, “participants in hostilities who defended the sovereignty and territorial independence of Ukraine.” It establishes criteria and determines the circle of persons to whom the amnesty can be applied until the end of the current year, as well as restrictions on its application.
In particular, categories of convicts are defined for whom the amnesty does not apply. These are, first of all, persons who have committed serious and especially serious crimes, as well as persons who have committed crimes using their official position (corruption crimes).
Previously, the Rada had already adopted the 2016 amnesty law, but it was vetoed by Poroshenko.
Initially, the law was adopted after a scandal with the detention and release of one of the commanders of the Aidar battalion, “Bati”-Likholit. Then, under pressure from Aidar militants, the authorities backed down and released from custody Likholit, who was accused of looting and extortion in the Donbass (despite the fact that the Prosecutor General’s Office had previously insisted on the validity of all serious charges against the battalion commander).
Then Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko announced that parliament should release from responsibility the ATO militants who, during hostilities, violated articles of, as the Prosecutor General put it, the “Peacetime Criminal Code.”
The Rada and Poroshenko have given the ATO fighters a 2017 amnesty.