Post date: Apr 30, 2013 12:58:14 PM
The European Court of Human Rights rules that some of former prime minister ofUkraine Yulia Tymoshenko's pre-trial rights were violated by Ukrainian authorities during her detention.
STRASBOURG, FRANCE (APRIL 30, 2013) (ECHR) - A European court ruled on Tuesday (April 30) that some of imprisoned former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's pre-trial rights were violated by authorities in Ukraine during her detention on charges of abuse of power.
In its judgement, the European Court of Human Rights said that Tymoshenko's rights to liberty and security under Article 5 of the convention, including her right to compensation and review of her detention, had been violated.But the court, which did not rule on her seven-year jail sentence, failed to uphold the former Ukrainian prime minister's complaint about alleged ill-treatment during her transfer to hospital in April 2012.
Tymoshenko's lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko was present at the hearing and welcomed the ruling saying the court had recognised legal failings in his client's detention.
"So, (for the) first time, not the political institution but the highest European legal institution, in a legal way, said that the prosecution of Mrs Tymoshenko in Ukrainehad nothing to do with the law, had nothing to do with the democratic standards, had nothing to do with the criminal prosecution. That is a pure, I could say, concentrated political prosecution," he said.
Ukraine's legal representative declined to comment.
Tymoshenko was convicted in October 2011 for crimes related to a 2009 gas deal with Russia which current President Viktor Yanukovich says saddled Ukraine with exorbitant energy prices.
Since last May, Tymoshenko, who has served twice as prime minister before narrowly losing the 2010 presidential run-off to Yanukovich, has been receiving treatment for back trouble in a state-run hospital in the city of Kharkiv.