PARIS – Paris has called on the Ukrainian authorities to respect the norms of international law during a new trial on former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko, French Foreign Ministry's spokesman Bernard Valero said on Thursday, April 5.
"France has been warning the Ukrainian authorities against using the court system for political interests. We are worried that this new process, the same as the previous ones, cannot guarantee the observance of the rights of the defense, as is envisaged by the international law," Valero said.
According to the diplomat, Paris is alarmed not only by the work of the judiciary system in Ukraine, but also by the conditions of detention of the convicted Tymoshenko, former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, and former Acting Defense Minister Valeriy Ivaschenko.
As reported, Kyivsky District Court of Kharkiv will start a hearing on another criminal case against Tymoshenko on April 19 at 1000.
Tymoshenko, who headed the United Energy Systems of Ukraine Corporation in 1990s, is accused of the misappropriation of state assets and tax evasion.
Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year sentence in the Kachanivska penal colony in Kharkiv for the abuse of office while signing the contracts on supplies of Russian natural gas in 2009.
