Strasbourg, June 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) - It would be premature to claim that parliamentary elections will not be democratic if Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko does not take part in them, Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych said.
"It would be premature to speculate on that. Politics must be separated from supremacy of law," Yanukovych said in Strasbourg on Thursday in answer to reporters’ questions.
Crimes must not be covered by political slogans. "This is my clear position," he said.
In April the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a third criminal case against Tymoshenko, this time regarding the 2009 gas contracts.
The first criminal case deals with the way the Ukrainian government spent the money it earned by selling greenhouse emission quotas under the Kyoto Protocol.
The second one concerns alleged irregularities in purchasing vehicles for rural medical establishments.
Tymoshenko has been indicted for abuse of office in both these cases.
On June 7 the Prosecutor General’s Office reported that the Pechersky District Court had given Tymoshenko until June 16 to read the files of the criminal case concerning the 2009 gas contracts.
Ukrainian parliamentary elections have been scheduled for 2012.
