Kyiv, Dec. 31 (Interfax) - European People's Party (EPP) President Wilfried Martens has expressed outrage over the transfer of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko from Kyiv's remand center to a penal colony.
"[I am] appalled that Ukraine’s former PM Yulia Tymoshenko was sent to a penal colony today… What’s next, hard labor?" Martens said on his Twitter page, according to a report posted on Tymoshenko’s official website on Saturday.
The EPP president also offered an assessment of the decision adopted by Kyiv’s Appeals Court, which upheld the former premier’s conviction in the gas case.
"In effect, the Ukrainian court upheld the undemocratic & politically motivated practices of the government. Pitiful…," Martens said.
Tymoshenko was placed in Kyiv’s remand center on August 5, 2011.
On October 11, she was sentenced to seven years in prison for exceeding her authority when signing the gas deals with Russia in 2009.
Tymoshenko was transferred to Kachanivska Penal Colony No. 54 in Kharkiv on December 30.
