Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said he is not planning to sue former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for libel.
“You are advising me to win the case, receive compensation for moral damage and spend the money on charity. I’m afraid that we won’t see that. So it’s unnecessary to waste time,” he wrote on his page on Facebook, responding to a proposal by a user to file a countersuit against Tymoshenko in Hamburg court and spend the money awarded by the court on charity.
Azarov said that he did not know for a long time that there was a lawsuit against him at the Land Court of Hamburg.
“When I was told about it, especially about the amount of a claim for so-called moral damages, I was sincerely surprised. I was sure I was right, because, the interview that I gave to a German television program on ARD was based on the current documentary materials of U.S. justice,” Azarov said.
“I’m not planning to file any counterclaims, but I think that this court decision in an independent European court should open the eyes of many people in Ukraine to, first of all, who Tymoshenko really is, and help them trust the law enforcement authorities and officials of Ukraine, who provide certain facts,” he added.
As reported, in her appeal, the ex-premier demanded that Azarov be banned from making statements about her alleged involvement in the crimes of former prime minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko. She also demanded EUR 300,000 in compensation.
In June 2012, in an interview with the Morning Journal TV program on German ARD Channel Azarov, showed a copy of a U.S. Justice Department’s verdict on the case against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, which declared Tymoshenko to be his accomplice. “This is so that you can see what kind of a political prisoner Tymoshenko is. I believe you trust U.S. justice, so here you are – look at this document. Here on every page Tymoshenko is accused of corruption. This document is not Ukrainian, this is a document from American justice, American courts,” the prime minister said.
On January 25, 2013, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine published a ruling of the Land Court of Hamburg confirming that Azarov had grounds to talk about Tymoshenko’s involvement in corruption. The court also rejected Tymoshenko’s lawsuit against Azarov.
