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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

But will they let him into Ukraine before the election date?

21 September, 1999 - 00:00

Viktor Omelich, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada standing orders and parliamentary ethics committee, has announced that former Premier Pavlo Lazarenko's petition (requesting withdrawal of the passage about Parliament's consent to his arrest, without repealing its resolution on criminal proceedings against him, of February 17, 1999) was deliberated by the committee and granted by 13 votes with one abstention. He further states that that hearings in the Mr. Lazarenko's case in San Francisco have been postponed from October 1 to October 27. If the arrest clause is deleted Mr. Lazarenko will cancel his appeal for political asylum. This, in Mr. Omelich's opinion, will enable him to return to Ukraine, after being released on bail, and get a fair trial.

According to Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko, Lazarenko's petition must also be considered by two other committees, one for the legislative support of law enforcement and the other for legal reform. Mr. Tkachenko stressed that it is very difficult to predict the committees' findings, and for Parliament the issue is “even more complicated,” since a decision will “depend on many factors.” He also emphasized that Pavlo Lazarenko, “by giving himself up to Ukrainian justice, will most likely have to say who had ordered the Lazarenko case.” Considering the complexity of the issue, Mr. Tkachenko added, “even if Parliament agrees to consider it [Pavlo Lazarenko's petition — Ed. ], it will happen sometime in the first half of October.”

Deputy Speaker Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the pro-presidential SDPU(u), was very skeptical (considering his roundabout lawyer's manner of expression) about the possibility of granting Mr. Lazarenko's petition. He said he was not sure there was any legal basis for considering the matter, adding that the Verkhovna Rada's positive decision “does not mean that the US authorities will release him and send him to Ukraine without a proper court ruling,” reports Interfax Ukraine.

Last Tuesday, Leonid Kuchma demonstrated that Pavlo Lazarenko was right in emphasizing his readiness to face “an honest, fair, and unbiased court.” Interfax Ukraine quotes the President as saying, “What kind of consideration can there be in his case if he is in an American jail, if Swiss law enforcement authorities want him in their hands because he committed a crime in Switzerland, and if the Ukrainian law enforcement authorities say that he committed a crime in Ukraine?”

How can this statement tally with the presumption of innocence? How can the President call anybody a criminal without hearing the court verdict, let alone deny that person the right to face justice? There is only one answer to these questions: the current President can hardly be referred to as guarantor of the Constitution in the first place. Second, despite his ducking tactic (“If Verkhovna Rada considers this issue, one will instantly see the attitude of the Verkhovna Rada leadership rather than Verkhovna Rada.”), Leonid Kuchma does not seem willing to hear Pavlo Lazarenko testify before the election date, even in a Ukrainian courtroom.

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