Interviewed by Oksana Panchenko, The Day
Chairman of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Volodymyr Horbulin read out President Kuchma’s decree dismissing Oleh Lytvak from his post due to his status as a member of Parliament. The Chief Executive highly praised Mr. Lytvak’s performance, particularly his firmness in handling the Parliament-President confrontation, and conferred on him the Order of Meritorious Service, third class.
Mr. Lytvak, no longer destined to hold the rank of Procurator General of Ukraine, is preparing to take his seat in Verkhovna Rada, saying he will work to accomplish what he had failed to do in the prosecutor’s office.
Q: Mr. Lytvak, how do you visualize your work in Parliament, considering that you will have to rub shoulders with Pavlo Lazarenko, Mykhailo Brodsky, and other members currently named as principal suspects in criminal cases being handled by law enforcement authorities? They will be your colleagues. Won’t this hurt your professional feelings?
A: Their being my colleagues in Parliament is a matter best considered in terms of ethics rather than the law. We all have to abide by the law. Some of the persons you have mentioned were elected People’s Deputies. This was done in accordance with the law. Here I see no legal problem, for these people were voted for by their electorates, meaning people voting for them thought they would best represent their interests in the Ukrainian Parliament. On the other hand, to me as man who has worked in law enforcement for over two decades, this situation is very disheartening. Together with like-minded deputies I will, of course, raise the question of certain amendments to the law on People’s Deputy status to lift parliamentary immunity.
I hope that common sense will prevail and we will rid ourselves of this feudal holdover, otherwise people with this status will feel free to violate the law, knowing that no one will punish them.
As for the persons you have mentioned, I think that they still face problems with Ukrainian justice. The Procurator General’s Office will request that the Verkhovna Rada assist in making members of Parliament face justice if their guilt has been established in the course of a lawful investigation.
