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Posted On

06
March
2023

When Crimea is de-occupied, there to be no time to change legislation, all should be at 'low start' – autonomy's prosecutor

KYIV. March 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine should now prepare the entire regulatory framework for the resumption of work in Crimea, so that after the liberation of the peninsula from occupation, it will immediately start working, Head of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol Ihor Ponochovny has said.

In an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, speaking about the action plan of the prosecutor’s office after the de-occupation of Crimea, Ponochovny said: “Now the key task for Ukraine is to prepare a regulatory framework so that the resumption of work in Crimea is as quick and efficient as possible.”

According to him, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin established an appropriate working group, which includes employees of the prosecutor’s office of the autonomy, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the presidential office in Crimea and non-governmental organizations.

“We are developing legislation for the resumption of work in Crimea. For there are a lot of questions and problematic issues – for example, the verification of Russian sentences issued during the occupation,” Ponochovny said.

According to him, the issue of exemption from criminal liability is important and difficult – it is necessary to determine who to lustrate, who to amnesty, and who to bring to justice.

As the autonomy’s prosecutor said, at least the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes should be amended, since they can resolve problematic issues.

“In particular, if someone is serving a sentence on the basis of a Russian sentence for domestic murder in Crimea, then such a sentence can be verified and the convict will continue to serve the sentence. If a person is in prison for discrediting the Russian army, then, of course, we do not we will verify, the person must be released. But for this, an appropriate mechanism should be prescribed in the Code of Criminal Procedure. Just open a pretrial detention facility and say: you are leaving, and you are sitting – you can’t, ” Ponochovny said.

In addition, as the autonomy’s prosecutor said, a separate law on lustration should be adopted, and the issue of ensuring the conduct of covert investigative actions of Ukrainian law enforcement officers in the territory of Crimea should also be settled.

“That is, we need to prepare for all the processes and problems that may arise now, so that everything is at a ‘low start’… I have always said: in Crimea, we should have the regulatory framework ready, because when the peninsula is liberated, there will be no time to change the legislation. Things were collected, arrived and started working,” Ponochovny said.