Yanukovych to arrange release of arrested protesters - ex-president
KYIV. Dec 10 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych will arrange the release of protesters arrested during demonstrations in Kyiv, a former Ukrainian president announced on Tuesday.
"The president of Ukraine, without interfering in the work of judges, will arrange the release of the people who are in custody today," but this does not mean criminal proceedings against them will be quashed, Leonid Kravchuk, who was Ukraine's first post-independence president, told a roundtable in Kyiv.
The participants in the roundtable, which discussed proposed options for settling the current domestic political crisis, also included parliament chairman Volodymyr Rybak and Communist leader Petro Symonenko.
An Interfax correspondent reported that other participants in the roundtable were Oleksandr Yefremov, parliamentary leader of the ruling Party of Regions, Maryna Stavniychuk, a presidential adviser and head of the constitutional and legal modernization department of the presidential administration, and lawmaker Volodymyr Lytvyn.
The roundtable, held at Ukrayina Palace, opened later than scheduled.