With regard to comments and statements by foreign states’ and international institutions’ official representatives about certain aspects of the situation in Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine would like to draw attention to the following:
On March 5 and March 6, 2013 the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine ruled that the parliamentary mandates of the Party of Regions MP Andriy Verevsky and the All-Ukrainian Union “Batkivshchyna” MP Serhiy Vlasenko respectively be revoked.
Under the Article 78 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a Ukrainian MP has no right to combine parliamentary activities with any other work except for teaching, research or creative activity. In the case of Serhiy Vlasenko, the panel of judges of the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine concluded that the facts provided in the statement of claim about Mr. Vlasenko combining parliamentary activities with lawyering are well-grounded. Therefore, the statement of claim regarding the revocation of his parliamentary mandate has been satisfied.
In this regard, the Ministry would like to remind that the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine’s decisions are binding and not subject to appeal. With this in mind, we are surprised with the efforts, including of the U.S. State Department, to make political judgments and evaluations of processes that lie exclusively with the judicial field.
In addition, the selective exclusive attention only to the case of opposition MP has not remained unnoticed in Ukraine. It appears that certain foreign politicians would be ready to accept the possibility for the opposition to avoid liability under the law.
We call on our international partners to refrain from groundless accusations against the legislative, executive and judicial authorities of Ukraine, and hope for an effective support of the efforts to strengthen the rule of law, implement a comprehensive reform of the judicial system of Ukraine, as well as the European integration course of our state.