You're reading: French writer launches petition calling for Tymoshenko’s release

French writer and philosopher Daniel Salvatore Schiffer has called “unacceptable” the seven-year jail sentence handed down to former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko over gas contracts signed in 2009, informs Yulia Tymoshenko's official website.

In his opinion, Ukrainian justice “resurrects grim memories of the sinister police methods under the Stalinist dictatorship and is becoming akin to the Moscow show trials of the era of Vyshinsky, a specialist in political purges.”

In his petition, the French philosopher stresses that Yulia Tymoshenko’s arrest in the courtroom before the verdict was delivered is a gross violation of criminal law and that the October 11 sentence is “as unfair as it is unjustified.”

Schiffer also said that judicial prosecution looks more like a political lynching, a masquerade unworthy of a country claiming to be closer to the EU, as was confirmed by the new case brought against Yulia Tymoshenko. “The second dubious criminal case has all the signs of a clumsy and desperate maneuver by the ruling regime, aimed at convincing the West that there was alleged financial abuse and follows from the idea that the October 11 sentence was fair,” reads the petition.

The French philosopher urges that the “Tymoshenko case” be brought to the highest diplomatic and judicial institutions: the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice. If this is not enough to change the judicial and political authorities of Ukraine, the author plans to “just as strongly demand that FIFA refuse to hold the upcoming European championship in Ukraine.”

Schiffer underscored that this “is the final appeal to the Ukrainian government with the demand to release Yulia Tymoshenko immediately.”

“Democrats of all countries, unite, whoever you are, citizens or political figures, sign this petition!” the author urged. He plans to officially present the petition to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Pechersk District Court Judge Rodion Kireyev.

Following Yulia Tymoshenko’s arrest in August 2011, Daniel Salvatore Schiffer led the European movement calling to deprive Ukraine of the right to host the 2012 European Football Championship.