The members of the Verkhovna Rada approved the law back on September 16. Oleksandr Turchynov, having signed the law on September 25, explained that the authors of the bill and civil activist experts had been checking the final approved document, as work on it had been very difficult.
“There has been no law that was as difficult to pass as the lustration law. Part of the members of the Parliament, who are afraid of this law, simply fled, having left their seats. After many attempts, the law was passed in full. It is the approval of this law that opens a real way to real reforms,” the Speaker emphasized.
The Cabinet of Ministers assures they are ready for lustration
According to Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, the necessary sub-law acts to execute the law have already been developed. After the law become effective, the government will begin the verification procedure, which would touch on about a million workers in the executive and local branches of the government. A separate lustration system was developed for the judges. The cases of the judges who had approved the repressive decisions during the events in Maidan will be the first to fall under examination.
“Certain state officials, first and foremost, those who work in the central apparatus of the Cabinet of Ministers, will undergo lustration verification. Those persons who do not correspond to the law’s demands will be void of their right to office for five or ten years. The Ukrainian government has the political will to execute this law,” says Pavlo Petrenko.
Oleksandr Turchyov, having signed the lustration law, noted that the document would be immediately sent to the President. The Speaker asked the head of state to sign the lustration law as soon as possible.
The President is for orderly lustration
Meanwhile, President Petro Poroshenko stated at a press conference that he had not yet seen the document, and therefore wanted to familiarize himself with it first. He also noted that the procedure of approving the law had not looked like it had been optimal.
“I have fifteen days to sign this law. I think that there is a necessity for a law on lustration. These processes should be orderly, at the very least,” says the Head of State.
Political expert Viktoria Podgorna is doubtful the President will sign the law, both because of the state apparatus and the elections.
“The system is constructed in the way for there not to be any reserve seats. Though there is a reserve, but it does not work in reality… Turchynov and those who worked on the law are outside of the President’s team. This is their electoral position,” the expert emphasizes.
Meanwhile so-called ‘people’s lustration’ is becoming more and more popular in Ukraine, wherein members of the government are thrown into trash collectors. On the same day when the President, Speaker and Justice Minister commented on the lustration law, a member of the Cherkasy oblast council ended up in the garbage tank.
