The European Union does not consider Ukraine's ex-Premier Yulia Tymoshenko, ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, former Acting Defense Minister Valeriy Ivaschenko and other former officials as political prisoners, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule has said.
"No, they aren’t political prisoners. We don’t think that anyone of them are," he said in an interview with the Kommersant Ukraine newspaper published in the Tuesday issue.
"I can see a clear difference between problem cases in Ukraine and political prisoners in Belarus, whose status we recognize. In Belarus they were arrested following their protests against [Belarus President Alexander ] Lukashenko’s dictatorship. In Ukraine we can see problems with quality of the legislation and the level of independence of the judiciary. At the same time we can see that your authorities are making efforts to correct the existing problems," Fule said.
The EU Commissioner added that the Criminal Code must not be used in political battles.
"We believe that the final assessment of mistakes and the level of the politician’s responsibility will be expressed during the election. It is important to give politicians an opportunity to compete with each other and convince the voters that they do not only propose the right future for the country, but also acted correctly in the past," Fule said.
