Ihor Huz

Ihor Volodymyrovych Huz (Ігор Володимирович Гузь; born 11 January 1982) is a Ukrainian politician currently serving as a People's Deputy of Ukraine in Ukraine's 19th electoral district in the Volyn Oblast, a role he has held since 2014.

He is a member of the For the Future parliamentary group in the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine.

Ihor Huz was born in Lutsk, Volyn Oblast on 11 January 1982.

His mother's side of his family comes from the Svirzhe village in the Kholmshchyna region, and his father's side originates from the village of Smidyn in the district of Stara Vyzhivka, Volyn region.

Huz studied at secondary school #19 in Lutsk.

Huz later graduated from Lesya Ukrainka Volyn State University, his specialty being the scientific study of politics, teacher of politics.

In the early 2000s, Huz was a leader of the Ukraine without Kuchma protests.

2001 – co-facilitator of the Committee for Truth!

Volyn Branch.

On March 9, 2001, he became a participant of the campaign «Ukraine without Kuchma».

Georgiy Gongadze murder was the catalyst for such resistance.

On that day, he participated in the attempt of storming of the police cordon, which was put up for Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma security near the main building of the T. Shevchenko University of Kyiv.

For this, he was beaten and detained by Berkut, along with other students.

He spent several days in the pretrial detention facility.

In total, after the campaign, Huz went through about 10 interrogations of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Prosecutor General's Office.

In March 2002, Huz was elected a deputy of Lutsk city council for constituency No. 44.

He was a member of the commission that took care of youth, education and science matters.

On March 26, 2005, he, along with other members of the National Alliance, supporting the Belarusian opposition in overthrowing the government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, along with hundreds of other activists, joined the protest.

Even then, protesters demanded the resignation of the President of Belarus and the release of imprisoned comrades.

The rally was brutally suppressed by Belarusian OMON.

Ihor and his comrades were arrested and imprisoned in the Minsk pretrial detention facility.

In protest, they went on a hunger strike and only after 10 days had been released.

Also for participation in protest campaigns, all representatives of the National Alliance were deported from Belarus for 5 years.

More than 10 years later, People's Deputy Ihor Huz was refused entry to Belarus when he tried to come to the country to participate in the Chornobyl Way rally.

In March 2006 he was elected a deputy of the Volyn Oblast Council on the list of the electoral block Our Ukraine.

He was the chairman of the standing parliamentary commission on youth policy, sports and tourism.

From 2007 to 2011 - Advisor to Lutsk Mayor on a regular basis, Head of the Department of Family and Youth Affairs of Lutsk City Council.

In October 2010, he was elected a deputy of the Volyn Oblast Council in the single member constituency No. 27 (district of Stara Vyzhivka).

He was a member of the Committee on Budget, Finance and Pricing.

In the 2012 parliamentary elections, Huz was a candidate from the Batkivshchyna Party in the single mandate constituency No. 21 (Kovel, the districts of Kovel, Ratne, Stara Vyzhivka, Shatsk) and won more than 36.39% of the vote, losing less than one percent to Stepan Ivakhiv.

On December 25, 2013, the Lutsk City District Court ruled to impose a 60-day house arrest measure on Ihor Huz with the use of an electronic bracelet to control the suspect's movement.

But already on December 30, 2013, the Court of Appeal of Volyn Region ruled on mitigation of the restraint measure against the suspect.

On February 20, 2014, he was elected]] Deputy Chairman of the Volyn Regional Council.

Huz was one of Lutsk Euromaidan coordinators.

For participation in protest campaigns, law enforcement authorities opened a criminal case against Ihor Huz for committing an offense under Articles 296 Part 2, 295, 341 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The politician was charged with "carrying Yanukovych’s portraits" from the premises of the Volyn Regional Council; calls for actions that threaten public order; seizure of state or public buildings or structures".

In the 2014 parliamentary elections, he was a candidate in the single mandate constituency No. 19 from the People's Front (Novovolynsk, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, the districts of Ivanychi, Liuboml, Volodymyr -Volynskyi) and won by a landslide, receiving 30.69% (27,243) of votes.

On March 15, 2018, at the Verkhovna Rada, in conjunction with his allies, he demanded the adoption by Parliament of a resolution on the rehabilitation of 17 activists who had been sentenced by order of President Kuchma.

In 2019, he ran for the snap elections to the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) in the single mandate constituency No. 19 as a self-nominated candidate.

According to the results of the voting established by the district election commission, the current people's deputy won 217 polling stations (97.7%) out of 222.