Parliament takes away deputy mandate of Lozinsky

11:50

The Ukrainian parliament has taken away the deputy mandate of Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko MP Viktor Lozinsky at the deputy's own request, made in a statement to parliament.

A total of 415 MPs out of the 444 registered in parliament voted for this decision on Friday.

Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn read out the MP's statement at a plenary meeting.

In his statement, Lozinsky asked for the termination of his deputy powers so that " an objective investigation into a criminal case opened by the Prosecutor General's Office can be conducted."

The head of the parliament's regulations committee, Regions Party MP Oleksandr Yefremov read a submission by Ukraine's prosecutor general asking parliament to give its consent to institute criminal proceedings against Lozinsky and arrest him.

As reported, on June 16, Valeriy Oliynyk, a 55-year-old resident of Kirovohrad region, died as a result of an incident involving Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko MP Viktor Lozinsky, the former prosecutor of Holovanivsk district, Yevhen Horbenko, and the former chief of the district police department, Mykhailo Kovalsky.

Horbenko and Kovalsky were dismissed from their posts and arrested by prosecutors. According to some reports, they have confessed to killing a total of 15 people.

Lozinsky, who initially was a witness in the case, asked prosecutors to submit for consideration by parliament a motion on taking away his deputy immunity to allegedly avoid any speculation on this issue.