You're reading: Yanukovych frees Tymoshenko allies Lutsenko, Filipchuk

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, under pressure from the European Union to ease up on political persecution if he hopes for political and economic integration with the West, on April 7 pardoned two leading imprisoned opposition figures: ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and ex-Environment Minister Georgiy Filipchuk.

The order takes effect today, when the two men are expected to be released from prison.

The presidential decree, posted on Yanukovych’s website on April 7, pardons six people. Notably excluded from the list is ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, in her second year of a seven-year prison sentence that the West regards a political persecution. The EU has said that Tymoshenko and other former top officials in her government need to be freed by May if Ukraine has any hope of signing a political and trade association agreement with EU at a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania this fall.

The decree is found here

Here’s a rough English translation:

DECREE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE number 197/2013

Concerning the pardoning of convicts

Having considered the petition for pardon of persons convicted by courts of Ukraine, the commission’s proposals on issues pardons and taking into account the gravity of the crime, the term of actual sentence, the person convicted, their health, behavior and attitude to work concerning having committed the crime after their conviction, redress, opinions of authorities and penal institutions, governmental agencies and local governments regarding the advisability of pardons and other circumstances, in accordance with paragraph 27 of Article 106 of the Constitution of Ukraine I decree to pardon:

1. Vikulin Sergei Alexandrovich, born in 1958, convicted verdict Dzhankoysky City Court of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on February 3, 2006 – free from further punishment.

2. Voskanyan Irina, born in 1974, sentenced October district court judgment in Mariupol, Donetsk region on April 16, 2004 – free from further punishment.

3. Yuriy Lutsenko V., born in 1964, convicted verdict Pechersky District Court of Kyiv on August 17, 2012, – free from further fixed penalty.

4. Mohilovtseva Dmitry Petrovich, born 1981, convicted Bolgrad verdict of the District Court of Odessa Oblast on 21 November 2011, – free from further fixed penalty.

5. Ryasentsya Alexander, born in 1982, convicted verdict Ovruchsky District Court Zhytomyr Oblast from Feb. 1, 2011, – free from punishment.

6. Filipchuk, Georgiy G., born in 1950, convicted verdict Solomianskyi District Court of Kyiv on April 5, 2012, – free from court-appointed principal and additional punishments.

The decree takes effect from the date of its signing.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych

April 7, 2013

The presidential pardon appears to have been in the works since at least late last week. He had previously stated that he would consider pardoning Lutsenko once the nation’s former top cop had exhausted all legal outlets in Ukraine.

Yanukovych asked the pardon commission to review his appeal on April 5 and ordered the pardons commission to consider Lutsenko’s release for health reasons.

The presidential appeal comes in response to a letter from Ukraine’s Ombudswoman for Human Rights Valeriya Lutkovska, and just a few days after the High Specialized Court of Ukraine upheld Lutsenko’s earlier sentence of four years in prison. A ruling by the Kyiv Pechersk District Court in 2012 sentenced him for exceeding his authority as a minister.

Lutsenko has one year and nine months left to serve, a fact that was also referred to in the letter by Lutkovska. Filipchuk, for former environment minister, also appealed for pardon. 

“Today, his health needs constant supervision and control in specialized medical institutions, which are difficult to effectively provide in the conditions of serving a sentence,” Lutkovska wrote.

Lutsenko’s wife on April 5 called the surprise appeal a positive step.

“To be honest, I am shocked by this appeal by Valeriya Lutkovska as to her request to pardon my husband,” Iryna Lutsenko told UNIAN news agency.”Regardless of certain tensions in her relations with the opposition, she made the right step. Especially since she personally knows about the state of health of Lutsenko because she has visited him many times in prison and was interested in his health, treatment and so on.”

Previously, the president has received a similar appeal from former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski and former European Parliament President Pat Cox, who co-chair a special mission of the European Parliament designed to find a solution in the cases of top political prisoners in Ukraine. Addressing this issue is one of key conditions for Ukraine to be able to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union this November. The president had said he will look into Lutsenko’s case once he has exhausted all means of fighting in court.

“Considering your position, dear Viktor Fedorovych, about the need to humanize the penitentiary system, and also considering the European human rights standards which envisage provision of effective medical assistance to the people who are serving in prisons, I ask you to pardon Lutsenko Yuriy Vitaliyovych and free him from the main punishment based on article 85 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine,” the ombudswoman wrote.

The president’s press service said in statement that he requested that his commission on pardon considers their appeals “immediately” and offers its findings for the president’s consideration.

Former Environmental Minister Heorhiy Filipchuk

Former Ukrainian Environmental Ministery Heorhiy Filipchuk, also convicted of abuse of office, asked for a presidential pardon. 

A respective statement was posted on the official website of the head of state on Friday.

Pechersky District Court of Kyiv ruled on Dec. 18, to take Filipchuk into custody as a pre-trial restraint. This decision was taken in response to a request by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine to put under arrest Filipchuk, who was detained in Kyiv on Dec. 14 on charges of abuse of office, the PGO’s press service said.

Filipchuk served as Ukraine’s environment minister from December 2007 to March 2010.

His detention followed an audit into the previous cabinet’s affairs ordered by Yanukovich’s allies which they say has revealed misuse of funds obtained from selling carbon emission rights under the Kyoto protocol. 

On April 5, 2012 the former minister was found guilty of the abuse of office, sentenced to 3 years in jail and ordered to reimburse Hr 1,4 million to the state in damages that he cost. According to media reports, Filipchuk reimbursed the damages. 

On June 21, 2012, the Kyiv court of appeal changed Fimipchuk’s sentence from jail term to 2 years probation with the 3 years ban for taking government and other managerial posts.