You're reading: Deputees raising questions about arrest of Lutsenko, Tymoshenko at parliament session

The Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense (OU-PSD) faction in parliament has said that torture is being used against former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who is currently in jail.

"The OU-PSD faction states that torture is being used against Yuriy Lutsenko and there is a threat to his life," faction leader Mykola Martynenko said at a morning plenary session of parliament on Friday.

He recalled that the authorities, despite Lutsenko’s illnesses, "are continuing to keep him behind the bars." Martynenko said that every day, "his condition is worsening and could lead to fatal consequences."

"The authorities are deliberately resorting to the physical destruction of a rebellious opposition member," he added.

Martynenko said that "the question is whether he will live to hear the verdict in his case."

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn, in turn, asked the parliament’s secretariat to prepare an address to law enforcement authorities to provide information on these claims.

At the same time, the BYT-Batkivschyna faction again said that the gas case against former Prime Minister and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko had been fabricated and that the faction considered this criminal case as political punishment.

"The case against Yulia Tymoshenko has been openly fabricated," Ukrainian MP Roman Zabzaliuk said.