By Inna ZOLOTUKHINA, The Day
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine's consent to the prosecution and arrest of People's
Deputy Pavlo Lazarenko will be put on the agenda in early February, said
Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko at the meeting of the General Prosecutor's
board. Mr. Tkachenko also stressed that the agenda item on the request
by the General Prosecutor's Office, dated October 26, 1998, to deprive
People's Deputy Mykola Ahafonov of parliamentary immunity has already been
prepared by the steering committee for consideration at a session. Mr.
Ahafonov has been hospitalized for two weeks, and Parliament may only hear
this matter in his presence.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Mykhailo Potebenko thinks that
hearing of the question of Ahafonov's immunity "has been artificially delayed
by interested persons" now under investigation in connection with the case.
Mr. Potebenko noted that the law On the Status of a People's Deputy of
Ukraine stipulates a maximum one month term for hearing a request. On December
25 the steering committee put off hearings on the issue, justifying the
decision by the fact that the hearing should be attended by the Prosecutor
General himself rather than his deputy.
Addressing the board of the General Prosecutor's Office, Mr. Tkachenko
expressed the opinion that "there are no political or constitutional grounds
to make the Prosecutor's Office a body dealing exclusively with criminal
prosecution." The Speaker also said he supported a "realistic" stand by
the office and its head, Mr. Potebenko, who warns that "depriving the Prosecutor's
Office the right to oversee law-and-order in political and economic areas
harms law-abiding citizens and the state as a whole."







