diff --git a/hepcrawl/parsers/jats.py b/hepcrawl/parsers/jats.py
index 6a1aa524..e8a29c0d 100644
--- a/hepcrawl/parsers/jats.py
+++ b/hepcrawl/parsers/jats.py
@@ -20,8 +20,6 @@
 from inspire_utils.date import PartialDate
 from inspire_utils.helpers import maybe_int, remove_tags
 
-from lxml import etree  # needed until a new release of parsel is made
-
 from ..utils import get_first, get_node
 
 
@@ -459,7 +457,6 @@ def get_root_node(jats_record):
         else:
             root = jats_record
         root.remove_namespaces()
-        etree.cleanup_namespaces(root.root)
 
         return root