Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called upon the Ukrainian parliament to consider a draft law as a priority to allow for the special confiscation of assets belonging to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and his allies, and urged the seized assets be spent on the nation`s future needs, particularly defense and security.
Poroshenko announced this amid an annual address to the Verkhovna Rada, an UNIAN correspondent reported.
”The stumbling block, unfortunately, is a law on special confiscation, which is an important source of financing of defense orders in the current year. This is your and my commitments before the nation, and I once again urge you to vote for the bill with the wording that removes all your cautions,” Poroshenko said on Tuesday.
He also called upon lawmakers to introduce necessary amendments to the bill to ensure the adoption of the legislation, whose goal is to provide the financing of state defense orders and the country`s other defense expenditures.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on July 7, 2016, Ukraine`s Verkhovna Rada did not include amendments on its agenda to some legislative acts that would have allowed for the seizure of corrupt assets, as well as assets whose owners are unidentified (Bill No. 4890). Only 172 of the registered 314 lawmakers voted for considering the bill at the previous session, while the minimum required number is set at 226. The bill, in particular, orders that the Civil Code of Ukraine stipulates that ownership shall be terminated if illegal assets are confiscated for the state.
The bill also orders that an individual could be deprived of ownership of corrupt assets through confiscation by the courts.
However, Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk said he does not consider it realistic to confiscate the assets of Yanukovych and his allies and then use this money for the state budget in 2016. He also said that this situation could affect the budgeting process in Ukraine.
