The Ukrainian World Congress on Feb. 3 sent a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in support of the nomination by several members of Ukraine's parliament of the jailed opposition leader and former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, for the Nobel Peace Prize.
"The Ukrainian World Congress emphasized, in particular, Yulia Tymoshenko’s steadfast contribution to Ukraine’s democratization, her leadership in the peaceful Orange Revolution, her continued efforts to promote Ukraine’s integration into Europe and her great courage in the face of political persecution," reads a statement posted on the Web site of the organization.
The leader of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party MP and a member of the BYT-Batkivschyna faction in the parliament, Natalia Korolevska, said the faction sent an application the Norwegian Nobel Committee to include former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko on the list of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize,
According to Korolevska, one of employees of the secretariat confirmed by phone that the Nobel Committee had received the application. According to the procedure, a letter with official confirmation will be sent in March.
She also reported the beginning of work of a public campaign to support Tymoshenko’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in Ukraine and at the international level.
On Oct. 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office in signing a gas deal with Russia in 2009.
Tymoshenko was put in a pre-trial detention center in Kyiv on Aug. 5, 2011. On Dec. 30, she was transferred to Kachanivska penal colony No. 54 in Kharkiv.
The SBU is continuing to investigate a criminal case against Tymoshenko on an attempt to embezzle state funds of Ukraine in especially large amounts via passing to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine debts of $405.5 million of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) corporation to the Defense Ministry of Russia.
