Vlasenko appeals stripping him of parliamentary mandate

Serhiy Vlasenko, a defence counsel for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the decision of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine (HACU) on the withdrawal of his parliamentary powers, the press service of the Batkivschyna Party has reported; Vlasenko has already submitted a respective application to the Supreme Court, reads the report.

"The possibility of the reconsideration of the HACU's decision arose due to the fact that it directly contradicts the earlier decision of the same court regarding the moonlighting of [Head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects Vladyslav] Kaskiv. The court then decided that Kaskiv couldn't be deprived of his mandate, because he was not present at a meeting of the committee for rules of procedure on his issue. Besides, that decision was made by two of the five judges who, in similar circumstances, now deprived me of my parliamentary seat," Vlasenko said. He said he was confident that the Supreme Court could review the HACU's decision under exceptional circumstances in accordance with Clause 1, Part 1, Article 237 of the Code of Administrative Justice of Ukraine. "The Ukrainian codes are written in such a way that the decision to transfer the case to the Supreme Court should be made by the Higher Administrative Court itself. Accordingly, I understand that there is no hope for a fair review of the case. Nevertheless, I still decided to go through all legal procedures in the country," Vlasenko said. As reported, Vlasenko is a defence counsel for Tymoshenko in a number of criminal cases. He has repeatedly stressed that he is a defence counsel, rather than a lawyer of the ex-premier. On February 22, Vlasenko said that he had appealed to the Council of Lawyers of Ukraine to cancel his lawyer's certificate in order to avoid any "political insinuation." He said that, according to the current legislation, a lawyer's right for advocacy was cancelled from the day of filing an appeal to cancel his advocacy certificate. He added that still he has the right to defend Tymoshenko. On March 6, the Higher Administrative Court of (HACU) stripped Vlasenko of his parliamentary powers, satisfying a lawsuit lodged by Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Rybak. The speaker said in the lawsuit that Vlasenko combined his parliamentary powers with advocacy. Vlasenko said that he planned to challenge the HACU's decision at the European Court of Human Rights.