Former Ukrainian minister freed
Presidential pardon for Yuriy Lutsenko leaves Yulia Tymoshenko as the only victim of “selective justice” in prison.
Ukraine’s Presidential Viktor Yanukovych yesterday (7 April) pardoned Yuriy Lutsenko, a former minister whose jailing has been one of the major obstacles to Ukraine signing major political and trade deals with the European Union.
The move has been welcomed by the EU, whose commissioner for relations with neighbouring countries, Štefan Füle, described it as a “first but important step aimed at resolving the problem of selective justice.” The Polish foreign ministry has described it as an “important step for Ukraine”.
The pardon came four days after a Ukrainian court rejected an appeal by Lutsenko against his sentence. Yanukovych, who a month ago said that it was difficult for him to take any action why judicial proceedings were under way, said he had pardoned Lutsenko at the request of the EU.
Füle and Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, had “noted” the court’s rejection of Lutsenko’s appeal “with regret”, saying that his trial had not “respected international standards as regards fair, transparent and independent legal processes”. The statement did not, however, call for him to be pardoned.
The jailed ministers
Lutsenko is one of four former government ministers given prison sentences since October 2011. One now remains in prison, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Yanukovych also pardoned Heorhiy Filipchuk, another of the ministers given jail sentences. Filipchuk, who served as the minister for the environment and natural resources in 2007-10, was given a three-year sentence last April. That was commuted to a two-year suspended sentence, and he was released from the house arrest under which he had been kept for a year. Filipchuk reportedly asked Yanukovych for a pardon on Saturday (6 April).
The other member of the quartet, Valeriy Ivashchenko, who served as defence minister from June 2009 to March 2010, was sentenced to five years in prison last April. The sentence was lowered in August, to one year’s parole. Ivashchenko, who had served two years in prison, was therefore able to walk free.
Lutsenko, who served as interior minister in 2007-10, was given a four-year sentence in February 2012, for embezzlement and abuse of office. The charges of abuse of office related to an investigation into the poisoning in 2004 of Viktor Yushchenko, who went on to become Ukraine’s president until 2010. Lutsenko was judged to have ordered the illegal surveillance of suspects during the investigation.
Selective justice and the EU
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The jailing of Lutsenko and Tymoshenko was explicitly referred to by EU leaders at a summit with Yanukovych on 25 February as obstacles to the signing of an association agreement and a free-trade deal with Ukraine.
The EU has described the cases of Tymoshenko, Lutsenko, Filipchuk and Ivashchenko as instances of “selective justice”, implying that it believes that political considerations played a role in the cases against them.
Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, said at the summit that the EU EU needed to see “determined action” by Ukraine “by the latest by May” if the association agreement were to be signed by November, when a major summit of the EU’s eastern neighbours will be held. José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said that Yanukovych had given his “unequivocal commitment”.
However, EU hopes of a change shrank swiftly after the summit when, on 5 March, a court stripped three members of the Ukrainian parliament of their seats. One of those who lost his seat was the lead lawyer for Tymoshenko, Sergei Vlasenko, a detail that fuelled suspicion that the decision was political. Petro Poroshenko, a former minister under Yanukovych interviewed by European Voice a day later, said that the court’s decision was “for sure a case of selective justice”.
The Tymoshenko conundrum
The release of Lutsenko from prison adds to the political importance of Tymoshenko’s imprisonment in EU-Ukraine relations. EU officials have described the Tymoshenko issue as politically the most complex issue and legally the most delicate. Tymoshenko is appealing against her jailing, but also faces taxes charges and has been called to witness in an investigation into the murder in 1996 of a businessman-politician.
A pardon for Tymoshenko would hugely complicate Yanukovych’s bid for re-election in 2015. He beat Tymoshenko to the post by just 3.5 percentage points in 2010.
The presidential campaign is already coming into focus, with the opposition pressing for elections to select a new mayor of Kyiv. The mayoralty is seen as a strong springboard for would-be challengers to Yanukovych. On Thursday (4 April), 4,000 people came out onto the streets to call for an election in June to fill the post of mayor, which has been vacant since 2010. Yanukovych’s party, the Party of Regions, received just 13% of the vote in the Ukrainian capital in parliamentary elections in October.