You're reading: US says additional prosecution of Tymoshenko to be stumbling block in relations with Ukraine

  Philip H. Gordon, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, has said that the U.S. government are disturbed to see the Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office continuing to pursue additional investigations against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

“We also urge the government of Ukraine to cease further prosecutions against them and other political opposition leaders. While two former members of Ms. Tymoshenko’s former Cabinet were released earlier this year, we are disturbed to see the Prosecutor General’s Office continuing to pursue additional investigations against Ms. Tymoshenko and Mr. Lutsenko,” he said in a statement in the Center for U.S.-Ukrainian Relations in Washington, reads a posting on the official website of Tymoshenko.

He again said that the United States “call for Ms. Tymoshenko’s release, the release of other members of her former government and the restoration of their full civil and political rights

“When I was in Ukraine earlier this year, I reiterated our concerns about politically motivated prosecutions of opposition leaders. Such trials undermine democracy and democratic values, risk ingraining self-censorship in the media, and discourage civic participation given fear of prosecution. They also create a stumbling block in our bilateral relations as well as in Ukraine’s quest to become a truly democratic society,” Gordon said.

He said that Ukraine’s parliamentary elections come at a time when Ukraine is preparing to assume the Chairmanship-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2013.

“In order for Ukraine to lead by example and demonstrate its commitment to the Helsinki principles on democracy and good governance, it will be important to demonstrate that its elections met the highest international standards,” he stated.

“We look forward to working with Ukraine to ensure that the OSCE remains a potent force for democracy, human rights, and rule of law across Europe and Central Asia,” he said.

“We encourage Ukraine to seize the opportunity of the October parliamentary elections and to use them as a springboard toward becoming a modern, prosperous, democratic, European country,” he concluded.