You're reading: Council of Europe secretary says criminal articles under which Tymoshenko convicted should be revised

Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland has said that articles 364 and 365 of the new Criminal Code of Ukraine should be revised in the light of the criminal proceedings against former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko.

“Keeping in mind the case against Yulia Tymoshenko, I think, that the Ukrainian Criminal Code should be revised again – I mean in particular articles 364 and 365 of the code,” he said at a conference entitled “Implementation of the Ukraine-EU Action Plan for 2011-2014” in Kyiv on Monday.

The CoE secretary general noted that there exist two viewpoints on the issue, in particular in the context of the current gas contract with Russia.

“I would like to repeat what I have said earlier, politicians should be held responsible for the decisions they made. But this should be done by the parliament and voters of Ukraine during elections,” Jagland said.

He added that the international community would scrutinize the upcoming parliamentary elections in Ukraine.

“The way in which the election campaign will be held, the level of freedom and fairness of the elections will be play a key role for Ukraine’s reputation,” he said.