Ukraine’s jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko will not ask president Viktor Yanukovych for pardon, Ukrainian Zerkalo Nedeli weekly reported on Saturday, citing Tymoshenko’s lawyer, Sergei Vlasenko.
“She [Tymoshenko] will not address to Yanukovych. She did not commit a crime. Some people suppose that Yanukovych will pardon Tymoshenko without her appeal. Will she accept it or not that is another question,” Zerkalo Nedeli quoted Vlasenko as saying. He said that there were other ways for Tymoshenko to be freed.
The lawyer said that Tymoshenko had a chance to be released after appealing to the Higher specialized court for civil and criminal cases that is controlled by the presidential administration or by addressing to the Strasbourg Court on the Human Rights.
Tymoshenko was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 for overreaching her authority in signing a gas deal with Russia in 2009. The deal obliged Ukraine to buy larger amounts of gas than it now needs, and at higher prices than it says is fair. Ukraine has since consistently sought revision of the deal.
Western leaders have denounced the trial as a political witch-hunt against her, a charge Yanukovych denies.
