Freedom House hails pardon of Ukrainian ex ministers, calls for freeing Tymoshenko
KYIV. April 9 (Interfax) - The U.S.-based human rights organization Freedom House welcomes Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to pardon former Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko and other former officials and expects him also to pardon former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
"Freedom House welcomes the pardon of several former government officials in Ukraine, most prominently Yuriy Lutsenko, a Minister of Interior under former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and former Minister of Ecology and Environment, Heorhiy Filipchuk. It calls on President Viktor Yanukovych to take similar action on Tymoshenko," Freedom House said in a statement available on its website.
"Sunday's pardon was an important first step by President Yanukovych," the statement quotes Freedom House President David Kramer as saying.
"I'm glad to see Mr. Lutsenko, Mr. Filipchuk and others finally released. But Tymoshenko's release is no less important," Kramer said.
"We hope that the pardons on Sunday will soon be followed by the pardon of Tymoshenko as part of a larger effort to put Ukraine back on a track to a democratic, European future," he said.
It was reported on April 5 that Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Valeria Lutkivska had asked President Yanukovych to pardon Lutsenko and Filipchuk. Yanukovych signed a decree pardoning the ex-ministers on April 7, and Lutsenko was freed the same day.
A court earlier sentenced Lutsenko to 4 years in prison for official crimes. His prison term would have expired in December 2014.
Kyiv's Solomensky District Court sentenced Filipchuk to 3 years in prison and banned him from occupying government positions for three more years on April 5, 2012. The Kyiv Appeals Court ruled in June 2012 to replace Filipchuk's imprisonment by a 2-year suspended sentence.
