On Sept. 9, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to President Viktor Yanukovych.
It reportedly doesn’t mince words in telling the Ukrainian leader to end the politically motivated criminal prosecution of his rival, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, over the 2009 natural gas deal with Russia. The tone, we are told, is drop the charges or else – with Yanukovych left to wonder what the “or else” might mean from the West.
On Sept. 12, Judge Rodion Kireyev announced a two-week pause in the Tymoshenko trial, until Sept. 27. One of the justifications for the break provides yet more evidence (as if any more is needed) that politicians run the courts in Ukraine.
“It could be because the judge needs time to prepare for other cases,” the pro-presidential Party of Regions said in a statement, trying to explain the reason for halting what had been a rush to try, convict and sentence Tymoshenko to prison. In the meantime, she remains jailed without bail for no justifiable reason.
Here’s what probably happened: Yanukovych sent out word that he needed time to think over his dwindling options, since he now has managed to face the wrath of the West and Russia for his persecution of Tymoshenko.
Here’s what needs to be done. The charges should be dropped. Tymoshenko should be set free at once and allowed to continue her political activities unhindered.
Ukraine’s authorities must repair the damage that has been done to the nation’s reputation. It must also finally work to rid its malleable courts of corruption.
There is no other reasonable option. No one will believe a conviction was honest or something other than a politically motivated attempt by Yanukovych to sideline his political rival.
Yanukovych must then explain to the world what will be done to instill confidence in judges, prosecutors and the police.
Among the steps are to make them truly independent, from appointment to removal; increase the transparency of the judicial system by forcing prosecutors make more information publicly available about why some people are charged and others are not charged; create an untouchable elite corps of independent investigators to back up the president’s claim that no one, including him and Tymoshenko, is above the law.
Trials should be speedy and public, with guilt or innocence decided by juries of a defendant’s peers for fairness’ sake.
Yanukovych can keep burying his head from reality and allow the prosecution of Tymoshenko to continue on Sept. 27. He can stubbornly insist that the courts are independent and that he has no influence over them.
But he will find no one but his own Party of Regions lackeys agreeing with him. And he will find himself alone, persona non grata on the international stage, as his nation’s hopes for progress are stalled by his desire for revenge in the pursuit of a political monopoly for him and an economic monopoly for his friends.
