Convicted ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and ex-Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko will be unable to take part in the 2012 election campaign, Ukrainian First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin told Kommersant Ukraine. The interview was published on Monday.
“They were convicted by Ukrainian courts, and the sentences entered into force. By law, persons doing their time or having non-quashed convictions cannot take part in elections. We think the same norm applies in practically every country of the democratic world,” he said.
He also noted that the actions of Tymoshenko’s supporters aimed to harm Ukraine and its image.
“The blacklists, all the crap discussed by the media… That is the strategy of her and her defense. Yet Tymoshenko is a criminal; there are no doubts about that,” Kuzmin said.
Asked whether he would run for parliament, Kuzmin said, “No. I do not need that.”
Kyiv Pechersky District Court sentenced Tymoshenko on October 11, 2011, to seven years for exceeding the authority in the signing of gas contracts with Russia in 2009. Since late 2011, Tymoshenko has been doing time at Kharkiv-based Kachanivska penitentiary.
The same court found Lutsenko guilty of abuse of office and sentenced him to four years on February 27, 2012. He will stay in custody for two years and ten months, because he has already spent 14 months in a detention center.
The Verkhovna Rada election is due on October 28, 2012.
