You're reading: Yanukovych: Comments on Tymoshenko case can only be made after trial

Any comments on the case of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko should be made only after the end of the trial, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said.

“I think that we should wait for the rulings of the courts. After they consider these questions, it will be possible to comment,” the presidential press service quoted him as saying at an informal meeting with the club of editors-in-chief of the CIS, Baltic states and Georgia at the Yusupov Palace in Crimea on Wednesday.

Yanukovych noted that today he has no right make a legal assessment of the situation with Tymoshenko.

At the same time, he said that in this matter the issue concerns a number of legal facts that have to be assessed in the courts.

The president also said that Tymoshenko should have been interested herself in the speedy consideration of all issues by the courts, but she strongly opposes the consideration of these issues by the courts.

“Perhaps, there are reasons for that. This is her way of defense – a political one,” Yanukovych said.

“We would like the trial to be completed as soon as possible, and then it would be possible to make conclusions,” Yanukovych said.

He said that there were currently a number of questions in the Tymoshenko case, with no answers to them.

“A political process around this is going on. But this again emphasizes that Ukraine is an open democratic country,” Yanukovych said.