Ukrainian Parliament intends to forbid questioning priests about information obtained during confessions

Draft law No. 5335 “On Introducing Changes to Criminal and Procedural Code of Ukraine” (on adherence to the confidentiality of a confession) in the first reading was supported by 236 deputies while the required minimum is 226, informs Korrespondent.

The author of the draft, a deputy of the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense Bloc, Volodymyr Marushchenko, points out that the current code allows priests to be interrogated as witnesses if the person who entrusted them with information during a confession relases them from the necessity to keep it secret.

The representative of Our Ukraine is convinced that the presence of the norm in the code regarding the possibility of interrogating priests as witnesses can cause malpractices.  

The council intends to specify that lawyers, notaries, doctors and psychologists are allowed to expose confidential information only on the condition of a written agreement of the person who entrusted them with information.

As reported earlier, in June 2009 the council refused to forbid questioning priests as witnesses in criminal cases with regard to information they received during a confession.

The draft law No. 1308 “On Introducing Changes to the Criminal and Procedural Code” (on adherence to the confidentiality of a confession) was submitted by Marushchenko to the council in August 2008.