Lawmakers vote to improve procedures of asset seizure and special confiscation
Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday passed another bill from the so-called "visa-free package" in a first reading to improve the procedures of asset seizure and special confiscation.
Corresponding president-proposed bill No. 4054 on amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes in compliance with recommendations stipulated in the sixth report by the European Commission on the implementation of the action plan to liberalize the visa regime with the European Union for Ukraine was supported by 264 MPs.
The bill amends Article 96-2 of the Criminal Code by introducing special confiscation if a premeditated crime or socially dangerous act has been committed. The bill authorizes special confiscation for crimes sanctions on which directly foresee such confiscation.
Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code foresee the seizure of property in criminal proceedings in the following cases: when there is the need to preserve evidence; the use of special confiscation; the use of confiscation as the punishment of individuals or legal entities; enforcement of civil action or a penalty imposed on a legal entity for improper advantage.
The current version of the law does not take into account that Ukraine is a party to the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism. Under the Convention, Ukraine has committed itself to the mandatory seizure and confiscation of instruments and means of crime and income or property whose value corresponds to the value of such proceeds and property laundered during all predicate crimes with the punishment foreseen in the form of imprisonment or a fine worth more than 3,000 non-taxable minimum individual incomes.
An explanatory note to the bill says that the adoption of the bill will ensure the use of special confiscation and seizure in strict compliance with European standards.
Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Groysman said both bills that belong to the "visa-free package" – draft legislation on asset recovery (No. 4056) and on seizure and special confiscation (No. 4054) – were scheduled for the second reading on Thursday.
