You're reading: EP committee chairman urges Ukraine to release political prisoners, including Tymoshenko

Chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs Elmar Brok has called on the Ukrainian authorities to release political prisoners, including former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

“We believe that the peaceful demonstrators who are under arrest
should be released. It’s unnecessary to use force against peaceful
demonstrators. Those who are currently under the arrest of the
authorities should be released, including the lady who was here, on
Maidan [Independence Square in Kyiv], in 2004 and is now in prison in
Kharkiv,” he said at a rally on Independence Square in Kyiv on Saturday.

The rally participants, in turn, chanted “Freedom to Yulia!”