A Ukrainian opposition leader on Sunday asked Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski to hand a "Free Yulia" t-shirt to Ukraine's president urging him to release his jailed political foe, hours before the final of the co-hosted Euro 2012 tournament.
Hryhory Nemyria, a leader of opposition party Batkivshchyna, used a meeting with Komorowski in Kiev as an opportunity to call for the release of Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
“I gave Komorowski two ‘Free Yulia’ T-shirts and asked him to hand one over to Yanukovich,” Nemyria told reporters.
Tymoshenko, the leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution protests that derailed Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich’s first bid for presidency, was sentenced to seven years in prison last October on abuse-of-office charges.
In Kiev to attend the final of the championship between Italy and Spain, Komorowski met local opposition leaders before meeting Yanukovich.
It was not clear whether he had delivered the gift but neither of the two presidents was wearing a t-shirt when they exchanged compliments in front of reporters.
The European Union saw Tymoshenko’s case as an example of selective justice and shelved landmark agreements on free trade and political association with Ukraine over the issue, but Yanukovich has so far refused to intervene.
Although she remains locked up, she has made her presence felt throughout the three-week Euro 2012 soccer championship which has been co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.
A tent camp set up by her supporters stood next to the public “fan zone” in central Kiev. A number of Ukrainian and foreign fans wore “Free Yulia” shirts at the stadiums. (Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov and Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Sophie Hares)
