NEWSBRIEFS (01/05/03)

NEWSBRIEFS

Judge protests cancellation of probe

KYIV - Kyiv Court of Appeals judge Yurii Vasylenko told journalists on December 28 that a Supreme Court ruling canceling his decision to open criminal investigations against President Leonid Kuchma violates the Constitution and criminal-procedure legislation in the country, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported on December 28. "Basically, it was impossible in any way to cancel the probes ordered by me because current legislation does not provide for a legal possibility of their cancellation, and all really qualified and impartial lawyers have come to this conclusion," Judge Vasylenko said. In October, the judge opened a criminal case against President Kuchma in connection with charges by opposition lawmakers that he violated 11 articles of the Criminal Code. The illegal activity included Mr. Kuchma's alleged involvement in the sale of military technology to Iraq and the murder of journalist Heorhii Gongadze. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Probe into Iran air crash ordered

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has called for an investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian Antonov-140 in Iran on December 23 that killed 44 people on board, most of them engineers and executives from Ukraine's Kharkiv aircraft plant, the Financial Times reported on December 27. The aircraft crashed into a mountainside while approaching Isfahan airport. The Ukrainian aviation specialists were expected to attend the maiden flight of the Iran-140, a version of the Antonov-140, built under license in Iran. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma signs money laundering bill

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on December 27 signed a bill aimed at helping to fight money laundering, UNIAN and the Associated Press reported. A week earlier the Verkhovna Rada had passed amendments to a previously approved law to combat dirty money, introducing stricter requirements on identifying account holders and giving government agencies broader rights to monitor suspicious accounts. The Parliament's action followed a decision by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force to impose sanctions against Ukraine. Legislators also gave tentative approval to a bill introducing fines and prison terms of up to 15 years for those convicted of money laundering. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Opposition to appeal protesters' sentences

KYIV - The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in the Ukrainian Parliament is collecting signatures for an appeal against a verdict handed down on December 25 to members of the Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO) who were accused of provoking riots during an anti-presidential protest in Kyiv in March 2001, the UNIAN news service reported on December 27. A district court in Kyiv sentenced 14 UNA-UNSO members to prison terms of between two and five years, while four others received two-year suspended sentences. Ms. Tymoshenko said her caucus demands that a probe be launched into the "brutal behavior of the court," which, she added, made its ruling under an obsolete Criminal Code. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Parliament passes 2003 budget

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on December 26 voted 348 to 37, with three abstentions, to adopt a deficit budget for 2003, UNIAN and the Associated Press reported. The bill sets revenues at 50.02 billion hrv ($9.38 billion) and expenditures at 52 billion hrv, representing nearly a 4 percent deficit. The budget assumes that Ukraine's foreign debt will not exceed $8.59 billion by the end of 2003. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has described the budget as "socially oriented." The Communist Party caucus boycotted the vote, saying the budget's social outlays are insufficient. (RFE/RL Newsline)

| Home Page |