MEP Hard-hitting Questions about Highly Selective Prosecutions
Member of the European Parliament from the UK, Charles Tannock has stated that the President’s Administration does not want to give the leader of the opposition, Yulia Tymoshenko access to European corridors of power. The MEP from the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists was commenting on the Prosecutor General’s refusal to allow Tymoshenko to visit Strasbourg and Brussels.
He condemned the decision, saying he did not believe that Tymoshenko would not return to Ukraine to face criminal charges and try to clear her name.
Mr Tannock said that after this decision he was left with very little faith in the independence of the Ukrainian courts and Prosecutor General’s Office.
He also noted that as of today there are a great number of unanswered questions. For example, why, after the current President Viktor Yanukovych, it is very widely believed, tried to steal victory in the 2004 presidential elections, that neither he nor his advisers had been prosecuted.
“There are very many answered questions and all this is seen as a retreat from Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations”.
On 17 June the Prosecutor General’s Office prohibited Yulia Tymoshenko from making working trips to the Chernihiv and Mykolaiv regions and from visiting Strasbourg and Brussels.