The European Parliament passed a resolution today insisting "that Yulia Tymoshenko should be allowed to exercise her right to participate fully in the political process both as of now and in the forthcoming elections in Ukraine", according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.
The MEPs are also demanding that the Ukrainian authorities "ensure a fair, transparent and impartial legal process should Yulia Tymoshenko appeal against her conviction, and in the other trials against members of the former government."
The European Parliament also believes the sentencing of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is a violation of human rights and emphasized that the law selectively applied against the ex-premier dates back to Soviet times.
The European Parliament "takes the view that a failure to review Yulia Tymoshenko`s conviction will jeopardise the conclusion of the Association Agreement and its ratification while pushing the country further away from the realisation of its European perspective; expresses concern at some signs of decline in democratic freedoms and at the possible instrumentalisation of state institutions for partisan purposes and to exact political revenge," read the resolution.
The European Parliament also expressed concern over the continued detention of former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and reports of the deterioration of media freedom in Ukraine.
"The European Parliament insists that all judicial proceedings against former and current senior government officials should be conducted in accordance with European standards of fairness, impartiality, transparency and independence," they stressed in the resolution.
The European Parliament adopted this resolution as a result of emergency hearings that were held on October 12 – the day after Yulia Tymoshenko’s conviction was announced by the court.
Unlike several recent resolutions of the European Parliament concerning the situation in Ukraine, this document was agreed by the two largest parliamentary groups: the European People’s Party Group, which is a partner of the Batkivshchyna Party, and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, which last fall signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Party of Regions.
