You're reading: Kuzmin: No one used force against Tymoshenko

BRUSSELS - Ukraine's First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin has categorically denied reports that physical force was used against former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko, adding that she became a subject of investigation under the previous president, Viktor Yuschenko.

Tymoshenko has yet to allow to inspect her bruises, the official said. "No one has seen her bruises," Kuzmin told the European Parliament in Brussels on May 9 at a conference which focused on the situation around Tymoshenko.

No one could even think of doing that, knowing how much attention is being paid constantly to Tymoshenko not only by her family and defense team, but European politicians too, he said.

The reaction of European politicians was a "mass psychosis," he said. "I am urging not to politicize crime and not raise criminals into the rank of democracy fighters and regime victims. It is a provocation aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian authorities. No one used physical force against Tymoshenko. There are no political repressions in our country. If there are human rights violations, we are ready to be held responsible," he said.

Criminal inquiries against the ex-prime minister were started not by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych but by his predecessor Yuschenko, who ordered such an inquiry in connection with the signed gas contracts, Kuzmin also said. "The fact that it [the inquiry] was completed under President Yanukovych does not mean he initiated it," the first deputy prosecutor general said.