Western Concern Grows Over Tymoshenko Arrest..bail requests rejected

[Jack]

The President of the European People's Party (EPP), Wilfried Martens, has warmly welcomed the resolution on Ukraine, which was approved on October 27 in the European Parliament (EP):

"The resolution on Ukraine, approved today by a large majority in the European Parliament, vindicates the EPP position, which has been repeatedly expressed in a number of public statements including the one I made on 11 October 2011. In the spirit of today's resolution and according to previous EPP statements on Ukraine, I would like to reiterate the following:

1. The EPP supports the deepening of EU-Ukraine relations as long as the country is stable and democratic and respects the principles of the social market economy, the rule of law, human rights and the protection of minorities and guarantees fundamental rights.

2. The EPP recognizes that the Ukrainian authorities have chosen another way, i.e. violating human rights, breaching the European values, abusing of the judiciary for the purpose of the political suppression of opposition politicians, including former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

3. The EPP regrets that President Viktor Yanukovych has broken the promise - given to many senior EU leaders and officials, myself included – of proposing a legal solution to decriminalize the articles selectively applied against Tymoshenko that date back to the Soviet times and do not conform to European and UN standards.

4. The EPP considers that, under such negative circumstances, no agreement between the EU and Ukraine can be signed and that President Yanukovich bears full responsibility for this blockade and urges President Yanukovich and his party, the Party of the Regions, to immediately end this prejudicial situation.

Furthermore, I would like to underline that any future meeting between President Yanukovich and EU representatives should be considered only if the Ukrainian authorities provide a concrete plan to resolve this unacceptable situation. Such a plan must include the freeing of all political prisoners – including Yulia Tymoshenko – and allowing them to stand at the next elections. Any further steps in EU-Ukraine relations will depend on the implementation of such a plan," President Martens concluded.

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Oct 28, 2011, 06:17 pm

Viktor Shvets, a former lawyer in the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) case and head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement, has called today’s decision by the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv permitting the Prosecutor General’s Office to appeal the case involving Antonina Bolyur and Hennadiy Tymoshenko an act of political reprisal against Yulia Tymoshenko.

"For me as a lawyer, the blatant cynicism demonstrated today reveals quite clearly the fact that this is a political order. The authorities won’t shy away from using the dirtiest methods to discredit their top political opponent - Yulia Tymoshenko," said Viktor Shvets.

The MP pointed out that the case involving UESU was "completely closed by this very same Shevchenkivsky court back in 2004." "The Shevchenkivsky District Court defied all norms of jurisprudence and laws of logic and extended for the prosecutor’s office the deadline for a cassation appeal from the three months allowed by law to seven years. It’s clear that this decision has nothing in common with the law," he said.

"There were no legal grounds for the court to issue this decision today. Seven years ago the Prosecutor General’s Office agreed with the court’s verdict and in all these years never showed any interest in appealing it. Now Bankova [the presidential administration] gave the orders and suddenly they decided they don’t agree with the decision," he said.

In turn, First Deputy Head of the Batkivshchyna Party Oleksandr Turchynov stressed that the government continues to spin the wheel of repression in Ukraine, ignoring the demands and recommendations of leading countries of the world. "Unfortunately, in doing so they are leading our country into complete isolation, transforming it into a totalitarian ghetto," he added.

[Muzh]

Jack, one more time. Goldilocks is NOT walking.

[Jack]

Muzh I accepted this fact, for at least the time being,  when it became obvious Yanacrookvch was willing to give up Ukraine's chance's of being accepted as part of the EU.

I just sent today's info to show the EU has pretty much said that Yanacrookvych did not honor his words to the EU,  short of calling him a liar,  and the fact that a member of the Rada, something Yanacrookvych has his eye on being able to seat with all his goon's, is now speaking out at the injustice.

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The EPP regrets that President Viktor Yanukovych has broken the promise

The EPP considers that, under such negative circumstances, no agreement between the EU and Ukraine can be signed and that President Yanukovich bears full responsibility for this blockade and urges President Yanukovich and his party, the Party of the Regions, to immediately end this prejudicial situation.




Viktor Shvets,  head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legislative Support of Law Enforcement, has called today’s decision by the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv permitting the Prosecutor General’s Office to appeal the case involving Antonina Bolyur and Hennadiy Tymoshenko an act of political reprisal against Yulia Tymoshenko.

Viktor Shvets said the blatant cynicism demonstrated today reveals quite clearly the fact that this is a political order. The authorities won’t shy away from using the dirtiest methods to discredit their top political opponent - Yulia Tymoshenko," .

[ML]

 Report: US to demand release of political prisoners in Ukraine  Today at 17:02

           Following the European Parliament, the U.S. Congress also has prepared a  resolution on the situation in Ukraine, reportedly demanding the  release from prison of opposition leaders Yulia Tymoshenko, the former  prime minister, and Yuriy Lutsenko, the former interior minister.         

 The U.S. Congress wants Ukrainian authorities to immediately release all political prisoners, according to the draft resolution quoted by Glavkom. According to the website, the White House and U.S. State Department have endorsed the text.

Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/politics/detail/116002/#ixzz1cNfGDEML



= = = = = = =

Quite interesting.  In the past, Western Europe and USA has repeatedly prodded Ukraine to take steps to lessen corruption by government leaders.  Now, when Ukraine is actually doing something . . . we also complain.

OK, maybe she should not have been convicted in the current case, but from what I have read here and elsewhere, she has done plenty in the way of corruption and enriching herself on the backs of the Ukrainian people.

Not to say that Yanokovich hasn't done even more; but stopping corruption must start somewhere.  Perhaps build a special prison for these people and start accepting the tennants.

[Muzh]

Muzh I accepted this fact, for at least the time being,  when it became obvious Yanacrookvch was willing to give up Ukraine's chance's of being accepted as part of the EU.


**********************************************************************



The EPP regrets that President Viktor Yanukovych has broken the promise

Jack, please keep in mind that the EPP is not the European Union, nor it speaks for the EU. This is why they can make such statements.

[Jack]

Muzh for sure the EPP is not the European Union.  Nor does the EPP speak for the European Union.

But it should be noted that the EPP is the most influential political family in the European Union.  Wilfriend Martens was recently elected to a 5th term as President of the EPP.

And what the European Union did say recently pretty much mirrors what Martens said a few days ago.


A spokeswoman for the European Commission said today (18 October) that the meeting had been “postponed”.

“It will take place at a later occasion,” she said, when conditions are “more conducive to progress in relations”. The spokeswoman said that the signing of the association agreement will depend on whether Ukraine respects the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.

[SteveOR]

Goldilocks is NOT walking.

Now they're going to try to charge her with murder.  Anything to keep her in prison and away from the elections:
 
From the Wall Street Journal:
 
"Prosecutors said they are investigating whether jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was involved in the contract killing of a lawmaker in the 1990s, the latest in a slew of allegations against the Ukrainian president's chief political opponent."
 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203707504577007741160883870.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
 
 

[JohnDearGreen]

• Do you think Yulia Tymoshenko deserves to be in prison for seven years and fined $188 million?:
• 69.13% Yes, it's about right.
• 29.38% No, it's too harsh.
• 1.50%  No, it's not harsh enough.
• ---------------------------------------
• What do you think of President Viktor Yanukovych's handling of the Yulia Tymoshenko case?:
• 50.95% He's doing the right thing by not interfering with the courts;
• 45.88% He's destroying his credibility and harming Ukrainian relations with the West and Russia;
• 3.17%Not sure what I think yet.
• --------------------------------------
• How do you think the court should react to the withdrawal of official charges by Maria Korshunova, who was beaten in July by Roman Landik,son of a national lawmaker,in an assault caught on videotape?:
• 6.61% They should let him go free.
• 47.93% This is a crime not only against her, but the state, so he should be imprisoned if he is convicted.
• 4.13% I don't have an opinion.
• 41.32% I am pretty sure he will be free soon. There is no justice for officials in our country.
• http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/116267/
• -------------------------------------------------------------
• If you could live anywhere in the world, would you choose:
• 24.86% Ukraine
• 2.16%  Russia
• 31.89% America
• 9.73% Great Britain
• 31.35% Another country
• -------------------------------------------------------------
• Will ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Sept. 7 protest rally be a momentous event?:
• 70.56% No, she has run out of new ideas and her time is over as a political leader;
• 22.22% Yes, opposition to President Viktor Yanukovych is building and she will lead it;
• 7.22% Maybe, let's wait and see what she says.
• ------------------------------------------------------------
• Why do you think Yulia Tymoshenko makes gas deals with Vladimir Putin with such ease?:
• 9.21% She is an excellent negotiator
• 9.21% He likes her personally and can't resist her charm
• 53.1% They are probably both involved in dubious schemes
• 28.5% He supports her candidacy in presidential election
• ------------------------------------------------------------
• Read more: http://www.kievpost.net/votes

[SteveOR]

 
An open letter from Yulia Tymoshenko as published in the opinion section of the Kyiv Post on November 3rd:
 
   Tymoshenko: Sign deal ‘no matter my fate’3 days ago at 20:09 | Yulia Tymoshenko Editor’s Note: The following is the full text of imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko’s Nov. 2 appeal “to the nations, parliaments and leaders of the European Union.” Tymoshenko, the former prime minister who leads a faction that controls nearly 23 percent of the seats in parliament, was jailed for seven years on Oct. 11. Her crime was “abuse of office” in the 2009 natural gas agreement she reached with Russia as prime minister. She has appealed the conviction.

Yulia Tymoshenko writes:

Dear European family,

Today, I appeal to you from behind prison bars, and I must rely on my family to bring my message to you, for otherwise I would be silenced.
My cell allows but a few steps from wall to wall.

These are the physical boundaries of my personal “freedom.” A small window through the crossed bars allows me to catch a glimpse of blue autumn sky. You really understand the value of freedom when you only see it through a barred window. It is here that you perceive all the challenges and threats to your people’s freedom most acutely.

Seven years ago, in autumn 2004, after the bloodless and peaceful Orange Revolution, Ukraine felt a real taste of real freedom. These were outstanding events and great, euphoric times. Countries of the free world seemed to envy us. Ukraine became fashionable; tourists came to Kyiv to breathe the fresh air of our newfound freedom.

On the Champs Elysees in Paris and in the Via Condotti in Rome, people snapped up everything orange. Until now, I was sure that our revolution of 2004 was one of the most remarkable events in our newly independent country’s new history, and the most significant contribution by Ukraine to the world’s democratic experience. And though I write to you from a cell where my government hopes that my imprisonment will sound the death knell for our democracy, I still believe in the victory of liberty in my country.

Today, in autumn 2011, freedom is being silenced, jailed, and forcibly exiled from my country. The regime has given me seven years in prison; others wait in prison without trial and with no date for release.
We must call things by their right names – an authoritarian regime has been established in Ukraine.

There is no more division of power into the legislative, judicial and executive branches; all authority is concentrated in the hands of one person. The regime’s goal is to steadily, stealthily enrich its members at the expense of the state and the people who are its rightful owners. But to achieve their mercenary goals, democracy in Ukraine must be liquidated.

I want to state clearly, though it is hard to accept, that today in Ukraine it will be very difficult for us to stop this mushrooming authoritarianism on our own. Those domestic forces that would protect our country against this evil are very weak: civil society is young; democratic institutions are both young and weak; our courts, our parliament and our media have been fully colonized by the authorities. Now they are in the process of destroying any remaining hope of fair elections.

To begin to recover our liberty, we urgently need the assistance of the world’s democratic community. Such urgent assistance would be signing of the Association and Free Trade Agreements between Ukraine and the European Union.
For Ukraine, signing of the document would be a historic breakthrough to the European dream, the final confirmation and protection of our independence; it would provide a hope of freedom and a decent life for 47 millions of Ukrainians, and the chance to abolish authoritarianism.


I would like to thank the European family for giving Ukraine unique opportunities, during the process of drafting the Agreement, which we have never had during negotiations. This is a confirmation of the sincerity and dedication of European nations to the idea of Ukraine’s European integration.

But it is obvious now that signing of the Agreement is at risk; failure of Ukraine’s European aspirations looms. This would be a tragedy that would darken Ukraine’s future for decades to come.
Our European future has been put at risk not by Europe, but deliberately, calculatingly, by Ukraine’s authorities.

They seem to prefer uprooting our sprouts of democracy and adherence to European values to democratic disciplines that the free trade agreement would impose. Twenty years of hopes of fully joining the European family, of finally putting behind the bitter Soviet legacy are dying because of the greed for power and wealth of a narrow clique around Ukraine’s ruler.

President Yanukovych and his entourage are breaking every precondition necessary for signing the Agreement. This is no coincidence, nor is it a misunderstanding. It is not because they don’t know how to do this or that the European way. They are consciously, purposefully, and cynically frustrating the process of Ukraine’s European integration, and reorienting the foreign policy course into the opposite direction.

That is why I appeal to you – the nations, parliaments and leaders of the European family – with a request not to allow your frustration with Yanukovych’s contemptuous treatment of Europe and the terms of the Agreement to prevent you from signing and ratifying it.

I ask you to disregard the deliberate sabotage of the process by the Ukrainian government. I ask you not to vote against the agreement because you think doing so may enhance my chances of regaining my freedom. I would not see my country’s European future damaged for any reason, least of all for my comfort.

Our ruling, criminal oligarchy and the people of Ukraine are not the same. They have different goals and moral values. The oligarchy thrives on lawlessness, absence of control, unaccountability, and a shadow economy; all of which are incompatible with European values. Ukraine’s people have demonstrated, by their courage and stoicism in the face of brutal misrule, that freedom, justice and solidarity are their core values.

Ukrainian citizens want to feel themselves full-fledged members of the European family; they want to shed the post-Soviet past and pathologies once and for all. The totalitarian past must be consigned to memory.

I appeal to you with a request: while taking the fateful decision on whether to sign and ratify the Agreement, think first and foremost of the European aspirations of Ukraine’s people. Ignore the actions of Ukraine’s criminal authorities, who planned in advance to sabotage and shatter the possibility of this historic breakthrough to Europe.

As I appeal to you, hundreds of thousands of the best of Ukraine’s sons and daughters stand before my eyes, fighting through the ages for the independence of our nation. I close my eyes and I can conjure the millions of Ukrainians killed by the Famine in the thirties of the 20th century only because they loved Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians are standing before my eyes who came out in the snows of Kyiv seven years ago hoping for Freedom.

I see millions of young people’s faces who are suffocating today under the pressure of the authoritarian regime. Our young people dream of breaking these grim cycles of Ukraine’s past and of becoming citizens of the free Europe. Do not frustrate their dream; do not punish them for the crimes of Ukraine’s regime.

It is for them that I ask you to sign and ratify the Agreement with Ukraine even if Ukraine’s government deliberately fails to fulfill the conditions of the last resolution of the European Parliament, because for Ukraine, this Agreement is not just the signing of an official document, it marks the rebirth of our long-awaited Freedom, assures the preservation of our independence, once achieved through much suffering, and will bring about the Europeanization of life for millions of Ukraine’s citizens. All of this is now in your hands.

I know that you are facing hard times in your countries. The EU is coming out of the global financial crisis; I know that the last wave of the EU enlargement and adaptation of the Lisbon Treaty need your energy and attention, but it is a great mission of the European family to carry real values to its brother European nations, to harmonize life in our unstable and treacherous world, and you are honourably carrying out these tasks. We, the free citizens of Ukraine, look at you with hope.

I know that one of the conditions for signing the Association Agreement is my release from prison as a sign that the regime will stop its political repressions and reprisals against the opposition. President Yanukovych is deliberately failing to fulfill that condition. Today I ask you to sign the Association and Free Trade Area Agreements no matter my fate. I cannot allow my personal freedom to be the reason for the death of the European dream of Ukraine’s people.

I believe that you will not leave Ukraine in the lurch and will help its people free themselves from the prison of an unchecked authoritarianism, absence of freedom, lack of rights and of hope that Yanukovych is constructing around them.

…I finished writing this address to you in my cell, in the evening. Somewhere outside these prison walls the sun is setting. But I know for sure that it will rise again over my dear Ukraine. And this will be the sun of freedom, dignity and greatness for a free people deserving of a future in a united and free Europe. Vote and ratify the Agreement with Ukraine; it will be our common victory over authoritarianism.


Yulia Tymoshenko

Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/op_ed/detail/116201/   

[tfcrew]

bump 

Husband of Tymoshenko says photos are shocking and horrifying

The husband of Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said that photos showing his wife lying bruised in a prison cell are "shocking and horrifying."

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2012-04/28/c_131558015.htm

Can't find the [mentioned] video.
Also...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-04/19/c_131538617.htm

This is recently on youtube w/letters [supposedly] from Yulia posted in the comments...




 

[Muzh]

There's no denying the moron of Yanukonvict has created a martyr.


Goldilocks a martyr! God help us all.

[tfcrew]

From that 'Requiem' video...

•      The next day I refused to take food. I think about the helplessness and hopelessness every person feel today when they confront with the government’s violence in all its manifestations. When they started to apply brutal force to me I imagined the despair of the defenseless people being cruelly, brutally beaten and sometimes even killed by policemen at numerous prisons, pre-trail detention centers, militia stations, colonies, in basements of the modern SBU-NKVS.
  (from prison, Apr 24, 2012)
      info4today   3 days ago 
     
•       When you are within four closed walls, fully-isolated from the world, when butchers with distorted from fury faces "take care" of you, when you do not know if this is the end of your life, only then you realize clearly what country we have built over 20 years of our independence, and you understand that we do not have the right to leave it to our children in this inhuman condition.
  (Tymoshenko's letter from prison, Apr 24, 2012)

[Shadow]

There's no denying the moron of Yanukonvict has created a martyr.


Goldilocks a martyr! God help us all.

Not Yanukovich but the EU/US 

[Muzh]

Not Yanukovich but the EU/US 

Oh, no sir. Not this time. You cannot blame this stupidity on the US/EU. Nope.

[tfcrew]

Angela Merkel plans Euro 2012 boycott if Yulia Tymoshenko kept in jail

      Daughter of Ukraine's imprisoned opposition leader calls on Germany to 'save the life' of her mother
   Sunday 29 April 2012 12.25 EDT

  A supporter of  Yulia Tymoshenko protests in Kharkiv where Ukraine's opposition leader is in prison and which hosts the Germany-Netherlands Euro 2012 game on 13 June. Photograph: Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images

Angela Merkel is planning to boycott next month's Euro 2012 football tournament in Ukraine unless imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko is released, according to newspaper reports.
The German chancellor's decision came as the former Ukrainian prime minister's daughter made an impassioned plea to the German government to "save the life" of her mother, who is has spent 10 days on hunger strike.
"Save my mother's life before it's too late," Eugenia Tymoshenko urged the German leadership in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung newspaper. "The fate of my mother and that of my country are now one and the same thing: if she dies, democracy dies with her".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/29/angela-merkel-boycott-euro-2012-yulia-tymoshenko?newsfeed=true

[Shadow]

Oh, no sir. Not this time. You cannot blame this stupidity on the US/EU. Nope.

If they would accept a country fighting corruption and not try to push forward people that they find favorable, there would not be any martyr, and most probably she would have been released with a secret promise not to return to politics.
But unfortunately it is only good to fight corruption if it is done by people who are not favoured by the Western regime.

[Boethius]

I doubt she would have been released.  Her impudence alone is enough to maintain the sentence, and Tymoshenko is responsible for a lot of Ukraine's current misery.

I do think she has been made a martyr in the West.  Most Ukrainians don't view her as a martyr.

[missAmeno]

I do think she has been made a martyr in the West.

Yes, but as always West have its own game and just using Tymoshenko to achieve their own goals.

[missAmeno]

[Muzh]

Looks funny. I wish I knew what they are saying but somehow I think I already know.