Ukraine's Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych said the seven years sentence, handed down to ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, is the minimal term Tymoshenko's offence carries and that this offence could be decriminalized.
"Concerning the severity of the punishment, it is the minimal sanction which this offence carries," he said after a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, when asked by Interfax to state his opinion on the ex-prime minister’s sentencing.
But he also said that individual offences could be decriminalized.
"Only now, not earlier over the 20-year history of Ukraine’s independence, has attention been drawn to the offence, which can be defined as administrative or political, but which in some instances may carry criminal liability. I think amendments could be made in this connection in the criminal code and a line drawn between which actions by high-placed officials should be qualified as administrative offences, and which as offences carrying criminal liability," the justice minister said.
Lavrynovych also said that decriminalization of Tymoshenko’s offence could soften the European Union’s reaction to the verdict passed on her. But it is also important that no third parties interfere in the work of the government and the court, he said.
It was reported earlier that the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv found Ukraine’s ex-prime minister and leader of the Batkivschyna party Yulia Tymoshenko guilty of exceeding her authority while signing gas contracts with Russia and sentenced her to seven years in prison.
Tymoshenko was also banned from holding public office for three years.
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