Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has registered a bill in the Verkhovna Rada that significantly changes the principle of imposing administrative penalties, the National Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine reports.
Thus, according to draft law No. 2562 of April 6, 2015, the presumption of innocence is abolished for individuals facing administrative liability! Thus, under all articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses, citizens must prove their innocence.
This rule grossly contradicts Art. 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine - “one is respected as innocent of the crime committed and cannot be subject to criminal punishment until his guilt is brought to the legal order and established by the accused in a local court. No one has the right to bring their innocence to the attention of those who have committed evil.”
Back in 2010, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that the presumption of innocence also applies to administrative offenses. Thus, in paragraph 4.1 of the decision of the Constitutional Court No. 23-rp/2010 dated December 22, 2010, it is stated that: “The Constitutional Court of Ukraine is on the basis of the instituted action, that administrative authority in Ukraine and the procedure for attracting administrative responsibility is based on constitutional principles and legal presumptions, which are based on knowledge and the principle of the rule of law in Ukraine.”
“The elements of the rule of law are the principles of equity and fairness, legal significance, clarity and ambiguity of the legal norm, since we cannot otherwise ensure its stability, does not include the inconsistency of interpretation legal practice will inevitably lead to savagery.”
The bill registered by Arseniy Yatsenyuk is aimed specifically at allowing drivers to be fined for traffic violations without evidence. However, the article abolishing the presumption of innocence applies to all types of administrative offenses, including hooliganism (Article 173) and Article 185 (malicious disobedience to police officers).
Given that the police force in Ukraine remains unchanged, this provision will lead to widespread fraud. Using this article, any police officer can accuse you of any administrative offense, and in court, you will be the one responsible for proving your innocence, not the officer providing evidence of your illegal actions.
In addition, it is not clear how this will be reconciled with Article 71 of the Code of Ukraine of Administrative Proceedings, according to which: “In administrative law regarding the illegality of a decision, the action or inactivity of the subject of ownership is of the utmost importance in order to prove the legality of its decisions, actions and inactivity rely on evidence that will resist the administrative challenge.”
In addition, with the same bill, Arseniy Yatsenyuk proposes to reinstate Article 14-1, which allows the owner of a vehicle to be fined. “Administrative responsibility for offenses in the field of traffic safety, recorded in automatic mode, lies with the legal and physical persons for whom the transport service is registered,” says the text of the project.
However, the same Constitutional Court decision No. 23-rp/2010 of 22.12.2010 declared unconstitutional the provision on fining vehicle owners based on footage from a video camera operating in automatic mode.
“Under partly another article 61 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the legal identity of an individual is of an individual nature. The need for individualization of administrative responsibility is transferred in part to another article 33 of the Code, which states that when a contraction is imposed, the nature of the offense committed is insured, especially the destroyer, the step of his guilt, the main camp, furnishings to soften and tighten the conformity. The Code specifies other constitutional principles, strengthening the principle of citizens’ equality before the law,” says 4.2 of the decision.
“The Constitutional Court of Ukraine issued a ruling regarding the inconsistency of the provisions of Part 8 of Article 22, Part 1 of Article 24, Part of Article 61 of Article 62, Article 64. The Constitution of Ukraine (254k/96-BP) provides for Article 14-1, parts of Article 258 of the Code (80731-10, 80732-10), which together with other parts of Article 95 of the Law of Ukraine “On Constitutional Court Ukraine" (422/96-BP) is a basis for declaring them unconstitutional,” the Constitutional Court then decided.
It's worth noting that this regulation was introduced by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine back in 2008, which was then led by... Arseniy Yatsenyuk! It was under Yatsenyuk's leadership in 2008 that fines were increased by 10-20 times and traffic police officers were given the right to fine drivers themselves without a court order.
Now, having returned to power, Yatsenyuk has decided to take revenge by reinstating the provisions deemed unconstitutional. If they are approved by the Verkhovna Rada, the country will descend into complete chaos—hundreds of thousands of people will be fined based on falsified evidence. Given the rampant corruption of the police and the courts, this will inevitably lead to revolution.
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