Member of the BYT-Batkivschyna faction Andriy Shkil has described the Prosecutor General's Office's ban on Batkivschyna Party Leader Yulia Tymoshenko's traveling abroad as political repression.
"I see this as an element of political pressure and political reprisals against opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko," he told Interfax-Ukraine.
Commenting on the motivation of the investigator of the Prosecutor General’s Office, who said that Tymoshenko might not return from abroad, Shkil said: "To claim this the investigator needs to have the respective information. Since he did not refer to it, this is his personal opinion."
"I think the investigator accepted a preconceived political motivation and a decision dictated from above," Shkil said.
According to the MP, such actions of the Ukrainian authorities against Tymoshenko "will be appropriately evaluated" by the world and European communities.
"[As for the] member states of the European Union and its close allies, I believe there will be no state visits [by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych] after this," he said.
The BYT spokesman said the denial of permission for foreign travel for Tymoshenko was "more damage to Ukraine’s international image and our state’s European prospects."
"The actions of the authorities clearly demonstrate that [President] Yanukovych does not shy from using law enforcers for political persecution of opponents. He blocks the opposition leader’s activities both inside the country and outside it, thus demonstrating his fear and desperateness. Such actions of [President] Yanukovych separate Ukraine from the European Union," reads BYT’s statement on Monday.
