You're reading: Klitschko: Commission’s refusal to pardon Tymoshenko shows Yanukovych’s reluctance to correct mistakes

The decision by the presidential commission on pardons that "found no grounds" to pardon former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is disappointing and a sign of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's reluctance to correct mistakes, UDAR Party leader Vitali Klitschko has said. 

He said the gas case trial had been held with numerous violations and had been politically motivated, the party’s press service reported.

Klitschko expressed doubt that the commission on pardons independently and impartially made the decision on Tymoshenko.

He said that the refusal to release Tymoshenko is, first of all, the reluctance by Yanukovych himself to recognize his political mistake and give up the use of selective justice.

“The refusal to pardon the former prime minister will not contribute to realizing Ukraine’s European integration aspirations,” Klitschko said.

As reported, on April 27, the Ukrainian presidential commission on pardons recommended that President Viktor Yanukovych turn down a petition to pardon former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

The commission decided that while investigations are ongoing into criminal cases in which Tymoshenko has been accused of committing serious and especially serious crimes have not yet been completed and courts have not handed down rulings on them, the issue of her pardon is premature.

Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court on October 11, 2011 sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for exceeding her powers when signing gas supply contracts with Russia in 2009. She has served her sentence in the Kharkiv’s Kachanivska Penal Colony since late December 2011.