Mobilization of prisoners: the Ministry of Justice expects the draft law to be considered by the Verkhovna Rada as soon as possible

The Ministry of Justice expects the parliament to consider a bill that would allow prisoners to be released for contract service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine as soon as possible. Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Malyuska told journalists about this, an UNN correspondent reports.

There is a draft law, developed jointly with MPs, the Armed Forces, and the Ministry of Justice. In principle, we have reached a rough compromise on the vision of mobilizing this category of citizens. Therefore, we expect that the draft law will be considered by the parliament fairly quickly

When asked how many people he was talking about, Malyuska replied: "It's thousands, but again, the final result will be after the vote, because there is a discussion going on now, it will not change the numbers significantly, but the only discussion that has been left so far, where a compromise has been reached literally in the last few days, is on the categories of people who will not be able to take part in the mobilization.

According to him, there are certain categories of convicts where MPs are afraid of their involvement in the war.

"So, let's wait for the final vote, and there will be articles of the criminal code. Persons who have committed certain categories of crimes will not be mobilized, that's for sure. Our preliminary calculations indicate that this will reduce the number of those who will be mobilized, but not significantly," said Malyuska.

Addendum

Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olena Vysotska told Suspilne that there are about 50,000 people in Ukraine who have criminal records and have already served their sentences. In addition, another 26 thousand are in prison. Some of them may be mobilized into the ranks of the Armed Forces.

On March 13, the Verkhovna Rada registered draft law No. 11079 on the release of convicts for contract service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Thus, the draft law proposes, in particular, that:

-       During mobilization and martial law, persons serving a sentence of restriction of liberty or imprisonment, except for persons convicted of crimes against the foundations of national security of Ukraine, may be granted conditional release for military service under a contract.

-       Parole for military service under a contract may be applied by the court if the convicted person has expressed a desire to perform military service under a contract and meets the requirements for military service under a contract as defined in Article 215 of the Law of Ukraine "On Military Duty and Military Service"

-       Convicted persons who have been released from serving a sentence on probation may be called up for military service during mobilization or for a special period, except for those convicted of crimes against the foundations of national security of Ukraine.