Currently jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will be able to run for the presidency in 2015, Head of the Council of the Batkivschyna United Opposition, MP Arseniy Yatseniuk has said.
“First of all, we are waiting for a decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). You know that this decision will be made in several months. I hope that the decision will be legal and it will free Yulia Tymoshenko,” Yatseniuk told journalists on Friday, while commenting on the united opposition’s decision to nominate Tymoshenko as its single presidential candidate.
He said that if the ECHR declares illegal the verdicts of Ukrainian courts against the ex-premier, Tymoshenko’s conviction will be cancelled.
Yatseniuk added that the united opposition discussed the decision to nominate Tymoshenko as a presidential candidate at one of its meetings, he approved it and put to vote on Friday.
As reported, the Batkivschyna United Opposition at an extended meeting of its council nominated the leader of the Batkivschyna Party, Yulia Tymoshenko, as a single presidential candidate by initiative of Yatseniuk. All members of the united opposition’s council signed a relevant document.
The next presidential election in Ukraine will be held in 2015.
On October 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office in signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She has served her sentence in Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv since late December 2011.
On May 9, 2012, Tymoshenko was transferred to Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv to undergo a treatment course in line with recommendations made by doctors from the Berlin-based Charite Clinic.
