The possibility for the release and the pardon was always there. The actual procedure for pardon is regulated by a presidential decree and can be adjusted overnight. But for more than two years, the president chose not to exercise his right.

When the pardon came, it happened surprisingly fast. On the night of April 5, the presidential press service reported that Ukraine’s Ombudswoman for Human Rights appealed to the president for a pardon and he instructed his commission to make recommendations on that appeal. 

On the morning of April 7, Lutsenko was free and sitting in the prison warden’s office in Chernihiv Oblast waiting for his ride back home to Kyiv. It happened within minutes after the president’s decree was posted on the website. 

We don’t know why President Viktor Yanukovych exercised his right to pardon Lutsenko and five other people, including former Environment Minister Herohiy Filipchuk. We welcome the move and hope that whoever influenced him to make this decision keeps up the good work.

We hope that the country’s top political prisoner, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, is also released soon. And we hope that the nation will not stop at that, and will actually proceed to reform the whole judicial system to make sure political persecution no longer happens. 

Ukraine should do it not because it’s a requirement to sign a political and trade association agreement with the European Union, but because it wants a future as a prosperous nation of happy people who strive for a just society.

A March poll of 2,000 Ukrainians showed that 43 percent of the nation wants to live in European countries. By making the right moves, Ukraine can help give its citizens hope for a future – right here in the nation, not abroad.