President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned the draft law "On amendments to some laws of Ukraine concerning increasing the effectiveness of certain individuals' assets-related sanctions" that Verkhovna Rada adopted on 21 April 2022.
The Office of the president of Ukraine (OPU) reports that.
The draft imposes a new type of sanctions in the form of recovery of assets that belong to a person or an entity as well as assets that they can manage directly or indirectly to the state.
"At the same time, the bill doesn't establish clear criteria according to which a person or an entity can be considered one of those to whom such a sanction applies. That doesn't meet the requirements of the Constitution of Ukraine," – the OPU noted.
Also, the bill delegates new powers to the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) concerning the detection and searching of the assets that are to be blocked and belong to persons and entities mentioned in the decision of the National Security and Defense Council. These NACP powers go beyond its competence as it's established by the Law "On corruption prevention".
Besides, the draft proposes to amend the Law "On sanctions" by adding clauses on the High Anti-Corruption Court's (HACC) implementation of administrative proceedings in cases on the application of sanctions in the form of recovery of assets to the state. At the same time, it doesn't provide relevant amendments to the law "On the High Anti-Corruption Court" that determines the principles of organization and activity of the HACC.
"Considering the above mentioned, President Zelenskyy returned this law draft with his suggestions to the parliament for reconsideration in the session hall," – the statement reads.