You're reading: Korolevska calls on Ukrainian president to defend Tymoshenko’s rights

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko should be released from custody, BYT-Batkivschyna MP Natalia Korolevska has said.

"I’m asking the president, first and foremost, as the guarantor of the constitution, to defend the constitutional rights of Ukrainian citizen and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. No one can keep a person in jail without any legal grounds," she said, while commenting on the decision by Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court to announce a 15-day break in the consideration of a criminal case against Tymoshenko.

"The judicial inquiry into the case against Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko] has been completed. The trial has reached the stage of the debate. And it means that all witnesses have been questioned. Tymoshenko’s guilt has not currently been proved. Why should she be left in custody if she poses no threat to society? Until someone invents and seeks grounds for a guilty verdict, Yulia Tymoshenko should be at large," Korolevska said.