By KYIV. Dec 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The public union Manifest 42 appealed to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a call to work out and submit to the Verkhovna Rada bills aimed at protecting businesses from the corruption pressure of the rear security forces, said the co-founder of Manifest 42, Chairman of the Council of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine Dmytro Oliynyk.
“We hope that the guarantor of the Constitution will come out in defense of Article 42 of the basic law, which provides for the right to entrepreneurial activity. Seizures of property and blocking of accounts are actually a restriction of the right to entrepreneurial activity, this is unacceptable,” he noted at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on December 14.
According to him, one of the bills provides for the introduction of a moratorium on the seizure of accounts and mask shows with the participation of security forces for the period of martial law, and exceptions can only be made for cases related to national security.
The second bill provides lawyers with additional tools to protect entrepreneurs against whom criminal cases have been filed, and limits law enforcement in areas where there are more abuses, he indicated.
The expert clarified that it is proposed to limit the seizure of property to 30 days, and these periods must be indicated in the court ruling. A petition to extend the terms of seizure of property can only be submitted by the prosecutor, the maximum total period of seizure is 90 days, Oliynyk added.
According to him, other proposed rules include the automatic return of items and documents seized after a search, but not returned after the expiration of the temporary access order, a ban on seizing the property of a person who does not have the status of a suspect in a criminal case, if the period of validity of the seizure of property has expired, the application for re-seizure of the property will not be considered, only the prosecutor can participate in the consideration of a request to seize property on the part of the prosecution.
He added that the bill provides persons who are among the participants in the consideration of a petition for seizure of property with an unlimited time right to unhindered familiarization with all available materials of the relevant petition, including materials of the court case, and video recording of the search by law enforcement officers should be continuous and it can also be conducted by lawyers and witnesses.
Oliynyk added that the two bills of Manifest 42 were developed with the involvement of the best practicing lawyers.
