Supreme Rada adopts a law on non-professional prosecutor general specially for Lutsenko

Ukraine’s Supreme Rada has adopted amendments to the laws concerning the activities of the Prosecutor General’s Office. The changes allow Yuri Lutsenko, a candidate from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, to become Prosecutor General even though he has no legal education.

The amendments say that a person seeking the post of Prosecutor General should have higher but not necessarily legal education and five-year work experience in a legal and/or law enforcement agency, should speak Ukrainian and should be a good businessman and manager.

On May 10, the Supreme Rada came short of just two votes for adopting the changes.

Lutsenko was nominated by the parliamentary group of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc. The second biggest parliamentary group, the People’s Front, said they would support the candidate if the post of his deputy was given to them.

Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party and Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna voted against the amendments.

Earlier, the EU criticized the Ukrainian authorities for their wish to appoint Lutsenko as Prosecutor General. EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said that Europe expected Ukraine to appoint a competent and experienced man.