Post date: Feb 22, 2014 2:39:48 PM
Ukrainian parliament votes to speed up the release of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenkowithout needing the president's endorsement, her daughter says she will travel to the city of Kharkiv to meet her mother.
KIEV, UKRAINE (FEBRUARY 22, 2014) (REUTERS) - Jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko will soon be released in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, where she is being treated in hospital, her daughter signalled on Saturday (February 22).
Yevgenia Tymoshenko said she was going to Kharkiv to meet her mother, who was jailed in 2011 for seven years for abuse of office linked to a gas deal and is a bitter rival of President Viktor Yanukovich."First of all, I would like to thank all the people who are standing on Maidan (Independence Square) and who have been fighting for three months for Ukraine's freedom, for these changes that are now happening in parliament. The only thing I regret, we all regret that these changes had to be paid for with such a heavy price, with blood of people. It was not necessary, it should have not happened,"Yevgenia Tymoshenko told reporters following a vote in parliament to speed up procedures for her release.
"This is the first victory, but not the last one for our country. In a few hours I will be leaving for Kharkiv and will be standing there and waiting when my mother will walk free," Tymoshenko's daughter said.
"This motion, according to all international norms and rules, is freeing her. And now we will need to go with deputies, representatives of the European parliament and civil society, journalists so everything will happen according to the law," she added.
A spokeswoman for the former prime minister, 53, said that although the moves in parliament already made her a free woman, Tymoshenko had not yet been released or left the hospital where she is receiving treatment for a back problem.