The daughter of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yevhenia, and Ukrainian opposition politicians that are members of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have met with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland and told him about political repressions in Ukraine, the Web site of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Union reported on Wednesday.
“We told him that at present in Ukraine we’re fighting not so much
for fundamental rights –freedom of speech, gatherings, impartial and
fair trials, but in fact for the human right to life,” said the deputy
head of Ukraine’s parliamentary delegation, Serhiy Sobolev.
According to him, representatives of Ukrainian opposition told
Jagland about an attempt of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine
to deprive opposition MPs Serhiy Vlasenko, Hryhoriy Nemyria (both of the
Batkivschyna faction), Mykhailo Holovko of the Svoboda faction and
Yaroslav Dubnevych of the UDAR faction of their parliamentary immunity
from prosecution, about the criminal prosecution of MPs, and the use of
force against female lawmakers.
The opposition lawmakers also told the secretary general of the
Council of Europe the new details of the charges against Tymoshenko of
her involvement in the assassination of MP Yevhen Scherban in 1996.
According to Sobolev, the hit men who murdered Scherban were killed in
prison in Donetsk region, when current Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka
served as the prosecutor of the region, and current President Viktor
Yanukovych was the region’s governor.
Jagland in turn promised to prepare a query for the Council of
Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture concerning the
situation in Ukraine and to make a special report on this issue at the
PACE session.
