Vice President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and head of the short-term OSCE observer mission to Ukraine Walburga Habsburg Douglas, and program manager at the International Secretariat of the OSCE Anna Chernova received permission to visit former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko in Mena penal colony No. 91 in Chernihiv region on Tuesday.
The State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine granted permission
following on personal appeal by Lutsenko and an official request by the
vice president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly received through the
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the agency’s press service said.
“Since under current legislation the prisoner is entitled to one
short visit per month and Lutsenko uses it for a meeting with
representatives of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the leadership of
Mena penitentiary informed U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Mr. John F. Tefft
that at present it was impossible to organize his meeting with
Lutsenko,” the press service said.
The prison service also said EU Ambassador to Ukraine Jan Tombinski hadn’t requested a meeting with the ex-minister.
Earlier, representatives of the People’s Self-Defense Party, which is
lead by Lutsenko, and journalists planned to go to the penal colony in
connection with a possible visit by the U.S. ambassador. However, after
Tefft was refused permission for this meeting, the trip was also
cancelled.
