You're reading: Tymoshenko congratulates Makarenko, Shepitko on their release from custody

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko came to Kyiv Court of Appeals with a bouquet of roses to congratulate former Head of the State Customs Service Anatoliy Makarenko and former Deputy Chief of the Kyiv Regional Customs Service Taras Shepitko on their release from custody.

"Anatoliy Makarenko and Taras Shepitko are people who acted for the sake of national interests, who acted for the sake of the state, and who acted against people who illegally took possession of state property – gas," she told reporters in the hallway of the court on Tuesday.

Tymoshenko described as happiness a court ruling to release Makarenko and Shepitko from custody.

She said that the Batkivschyna Party would do everything to rehabilitate these people as honest citizens.

"We will do everything to ensure that they are rehabilitated in full, because, in fact, they have to be given state awards, but they were put in prison for their national position, for their honest position," she said.

Tymoshenko was accompanied by about ten MPs from the BYT-Batkivschyna faction.

Relatives waited for Makarenko and Shepitko outside the courthouse.

Makarenko and Shepitko are charged with the illegal customs clearance of natural gas. They were detained as part of a criminal investigation into causing damage to Ukraine after the consideration of a lawsuit filed by RosUkrEnergo against Naftogaz Ukrainy at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.