The Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law as a whole, which returned the confiscation of property when concluding an agreement in corruption

The Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 12243-1 as a whole, which returned the confiscation of property when concluding an agreement in corruption crimes. The decision was supported by 276 MPs.

MP from the "Voice" party Yaroslav Zheleznyak declared this.

This draft law allows for confiscation of property as an additional punishment for suspects or accused of corruption or corruption-related criminal offense based on a plea agreement. This is an addition to Article 77 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Criticism of the draft law

The non-governmental organization Transparency International Ukraine says that the mechanism of confiscation of assets in corruption cases will be imperfect. There are several reasons for this:

• the confiscation of property as a punishment cannot achieve the goals of recovery of criminal property, which is recorded on false persons.
• special confiscation, which allows recovery of such assets, is still not a priority in entering into plea agreements;
• the current legislation does not allow the seizure of assets for the use of "extended" confiscation — an institution provided for by the Criminal Code of Ukraine for the recovery of illegal assets from those convicted of corruption and money laundering.

What preceded

On October 31, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed Law No. 12039 on Agreements with Investigations in Corruption Cases. The law contained a provision on confiscation of property, but it was withdrawn later, with the adoption of draft law No. 11410 on the deprivation of state awards of Ukraine.

After that, the rule on confiscation of property was prescribed in draft law No. 10242, which provided for 8 years of imprisonment for the distribution of closed data from registers. According to the Ukrainian media community, this law could limit freedom of speech in Ukraine. But on December 4, parliamentarians did not get enough votes to pass the draft law. Therefore, on the same day, a separate document was registered — precisely on the rules of confiscation.

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