Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has urged the Verkhovna Rada to immediately adopt the new version of the Criminal Code article on illegal enrichment. He said all corrupt officials will not be able to evade responsibility.

On Thursday evening, in an interview with Ukrainian TV channels, Poroshenko said: "I am not just a politician, I am the president of the country. And in accordance with the law and the Constitution, I cannot and will not comment on the decisions of any courts, because it can be perceived as putting pressure on the court. I want to disappoint officials who think that as a result of this decision of the Constitutional Court they will be able to evade responsibility. This will not happen. Criminal liability has been changed, but nobody has canceled illegal enrichment."

The president said just hours after the decision of the Constitutional Court he introduced a bill that takes into account the comments of the Constitutional Court regarding the presumption of innocence.

"But the responsibility for corruption, including the responsibility for illegal enrichment, will also be criminalized. No one can escape responsibility. Someone thinks that he will run away because of the wording of this article - there will be other articles, because illegal enrichment is always associated with other violations of the law," Poroshenko said.

In this context, he called on parliamentarians to urgently consider and adopt the bill submitted to them.

"That is why I appeal to parliamentarians to take into account the position of the president regarding the urgency of considering this bill - we must arm the law enforcement agencies as soon as possible, including with anti-corruption bodies," he said, adding that the decision of the Constitutional Court "does not protect corrupt officials."

As reported, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine issued a ruling in the case on a constitutional motion filed by 59 Members of Parliament of Ukraine regarding the compliance (constitutionality) of Article 368-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illicit enrichment) with the Constitution of Ukraine. By this ruling, the Court recognized that Article 368-2 of the Criminal Code does not comply with the Constitution of Ukraine, i.e. it is unconstitutional.

Changes in Article 368-2 appeared in 2015. Corresponding draft law No. 1660 was adopted by parliament in full during February 2015. It was one of the bills in a package of anti-corruption initiatives, passage of which was a condition for liberalizing visa-free travel for Ukrainians in the EU, as well as for continued cooperation with Ukraine by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The president's draft law on amending Ukraine's Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code regarding liability for illegal enrichment (No. 10110) was registered in parliament on February 28, 2019.

The measure obliges pretrial investigation agencies to prove the legitimacy of assets acquired by officials and provides for the punishment for illegal enrichment, even when there are no signs of abuse of office and bribery.

Spokesman for the Poroshenko presidential campaign Oleh Medvedev said that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko would soon appeal to the leaders of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, to urge lawmakers to adopt changes on illegal enrichment in the Criminal Code as quickly as possible.