The delay by the authorities of the cassation appeal of Yulia Tymoshenko’s sentence in the so-called “gas case” will not preclude the European Court of Human Rights from considering her case, says lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko, according to Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.

"It’s absolutely clear that Yanukovych doesn’t want any ruling by the cassation court that would fully open the door for Yulia Tymoshenko’s complaint to the European Court of Human Rights and remove the last obstacles for consideration of Yulia Tymoshenko’s case on August 28 of this year," said Serhiy Vlasenko.

The lawyer believes the delay is connected with the upcoming parliamentary elections in Ukraine. "All the cases brought against Yulia Tymoshenko by Yanukovych are related to the elections, because the main goal of all these cases is to remove Yulia Tymoshenko from active participation in Ukrainian politics and deny her the opportunity to be elected to parliament in the 2012 elections. This is the aim behind all these fabricated charges," he explained.

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"I predict that at the next hearing the High Specialized Court will say that it’s also being postponed because they need to bring Yulia Tymoshenko to the courtroom. Then they will delay it again on some other false grounds and won’t hear the appeal at least until the decision by the European Court of Human Rights," said Serhiy Vlasenko.

He sad the repeated postponement of the cassation process is evidence that the Yulia Tymoshenko’s defense team has exhausted all national legal mechanism. "The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly stated in its legal opinions that exhaustion of all national institutions to protect human rights isn’t an axiom and is reviewed by the court in each individual case. Right now we have enough evidence of the unlawful and baseless delay of this case. This court has already proved that it is biased and these are sufficient grounds to say that we have exhausted all possible means to legally defend Yulia Tymoshenko’s rights in this case," he said.

"They can arbitrarily postpone the hearing for the next 10 years. This doesn’t mean that this entire time Yulia Tymoshenko will be denied the opportunity to apply to the European court. I think the European court will accept these arguments," said Serhiy Vlasenko.