Rada Adopts Visa-free Package Law on Seizure of Property

A bill that amends the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine in terms of certain issues of the seizure of property has passed second reading at the Verkhovna Rada.

The bill is marked as 2540a and is part of the EU visa-free package. The seizure can be applied to property owned, used, or disposed of by a suspect, defendant, convict, third parties, legal entity which can be affected by criminal justice measures, following a decision by court or investigating judge.

The bill was supported by 291 MPs, Censor.NET reports.

According to the law, the property is seized to ensure criminal proceedings, a civil claim in criminal proceedings, confiscation or special confiscation. The seizure can be applied to property owned, used, or disposed of by a suspect, defendant, convict, third parties, legal entity which can be affected by criminal justice measures, following a decision by court or investigating judge. Third parties, whose property may be seized, are persons who have received or acquired property from a suspect, defendant, or convict free of charge or for a sum significantly below the market value and knew or should have known that the purpose of such transfer is getting profits from property obtained in crime, concealment of crime, and/or avoidance of seizure. The said information in respect of a third party should be established by judicial means on the basis of sufficiency of evidence.

The law establishes that the reason for the seizure of property is a decision of investigating judge or court having enough reasons to believe that the property is a subject, means, or instrument of crime, is acquired in crime, is profits received in crime, or acquired via profits received in crime.