diff --git a/lib/utils/versioncheck.py b/lib/utils/versioncheck.py
index a348fca34..802e0cf59 100644
--- a/lib/utils/versioncheck.py
+++ b/lib/utils/versioncheck.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ extensions = ("gzip", "ssl", "sqlite3", "zlib")
 try:
     for _ in extensions:
         __import__(_)
-except ImportError, ex:
+except ImportError:
     errMsg = "missing one or more core extensions (%s) " % (", ".join("'%s'" % _ for _ in extensions))
     errMsg += "most probably because current version of Python has been "
     errMsg += "built without appropriate dev packages (e.g. 'libsqlite3-dev')"