The European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled on April 30 that the Aug. 5, 2011 arrest of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was unlawful and politically motivated.
The ECHR held in particular: that Ms Tymoshenko’s pre-trial detention had been arbitrary; that the lawfulness of her detention had not been properly reviewed; and, that she had no possibility to seek compensation for her unlawful deprivation of liberty.
The court’s ruling “was expected,” Valentyna Telychenko told Ukrainska Pravda, Tymoshenko’s representative to the ECHR.
A panel of seven judges, one of whom is Ukrainian Ganna Yudkivska, made the decision.
Nazar Kulchytsky, Ukraine’s government agent before
the European Court of Human Rights said both sides have three months to appeal the
decision. “If either side appeals, a chamber of five judges decides if there is
ground for further investigation. If the chamber’s decision is negative, the
previous ruling goes into force. If the decision is positive, the case is
being transferred to the Grand Chamber of 17 judges,” he said.
Natalia Lysova, a party spokesperson who was present in the Strasbourg court during the ruling, told the Kyiv Post that Tymoshenko’s lawyer Serhiy Vlasneko was also present, as was the Ukrainian ambassador to France, representing the government. Reports indicate the latter stormed out of the courtroom when the ruling was read.
Tymoshenko’s daughter, Yevgenia, said she believes that the ex-prime minister should be released based on the court’s ruling.
She said the European human rights court “recognized my mom as a political prisoner and the authorities can’t deny this,” Yevgenia Tymosheno said at a press conference in Kyiv. “The president of Ukraine, based on the court’s decision, has all the possibilities to release my mom and we hope that this humane decision to be taken in the nearest future.”
Serhiy Vlasenko, Yulia Tymoshenko’s personal lawyer said that for the first time, “a European institution has given a legal opinion on the case of Yulia Tymoshenko. Based on Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the ECHR unanimously ruled that Tymoshenko was arrested and held in custody unlawfully and that she is subject to politically motivated prosecution,” the Batkivschyna Party’s press service quoted Vlasenko as saying.
Ukraine ratified the European Convention on Human Rights in 1997.
Tymoshenko,
a leading opposition leader and chief political rival of President Viktor
Yanukovych is now serving a seven-year prison term for abuse-of-office after brokering
a gas deal with Russia in 2009. The case is widely seen in the West and in
Ukraine as politically motivated.
Authorities
arrested Tymoshenko in August 2011 for “evasion of investigation” during the
court hearing over the Russian gas supply case.
Two additional
criminal cases are pending against Tymoshenko.
Kyiv Post staff writers can be reached at [email protected].
