The Verkhovna Rada on 23 February adopted in the first reading a government bill amending the so-called "Savchenko law".
The bill suggests that the norm envisaging crediting every day of a pretrial detention as two days of the main punishment shall not apply to those convicted for grave and especially grave crimes, and repeated offenders.
Savchenko law came into force in December 2015.
Over the past year, over 8.5 thousand convicted criminals were released from prisons early under this law, and another 35 thousand were subject to early release. Of them 906 persons have committed repeated crimes, including 27 murders, 21 inflicting serious injuries, 12 rapes, 670 thefts, 172 robberies, 68 armed robberies, 43 frauds and 23 acts of hooliganism.
Law enforcers and many people's deputies have repeatedly criticised the law.