Justice Minister considers it important to attract the public and journalists to lustration process

It is extremely important to attract NGOs and journalists to the process of cleansing of power. This was stressed by Minister of Justice Pavlo Petrenko during a briefing at the Government House on Friday, December 5.

"It's extremely important for us that lustration checks were relevant and important for journalists and the public. It's not just a matter of the Government, the Ministry of Justice or the Prime Minister, this is a matter of the whole community. We need your help, because one of the conditions for effective lustration was active position of journalists and NGOs to provide control over the process," Pavlo Petrenko stated.

According to him, the Ministry of Justice for its part will respond to all the facts revealed: "We will initiate before the Government, if required, the President, dismissal of those managers who are covering up their employees, or their colleagues of the lustration process."

The Minister has expressed confidence that the new Government, "which has been formed by a completely new philosophy" has a chance to carry out scheduled reforms, in particular, to perform the cleansing of government.

He has reminded that under the lustration law there are several stages of lustration. Automatic labor lustration took place at the first stage. Top officials at ministries, departments, their first deputies, heads of law enforcement bodies of the Interior Ministry, heads of regional state administrations and their first deputies who worked under the Yanukovych regime over a year were included in the indisputable lustration. "We can put a good mark to the Ukrainian authorities for this test," Pavlo Petrenko noted.

According to him, as of today, 357 people have been included in the State register of persons subject to the lustration law. "This is solely top officials who come under the absolute lustration. Many people retired voluntarily before the entry into force of the law. They are also subject to the ban, and they also cannot take office in the bodies of power over the next 10 years," the Minister emphasized.