The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union has appealed to President Yanukovych to pardon Yulia Tymoshenko

To President Yanukovych

Mr President,

According to Articles 106, Item 27 § 1 of Ukraine’s Constitution and 87 § 1 of the Criminal Code, the President may pardon a specific individual.

The development of the situation with the detention of Yulia Tymoshenko and ongoing court proceedings against her have heightened the attention of the Ukrainian public and international community to the issue of impartiality in Ukraine’s justice system, to the question of whether the system of criminal justice complies with international human rights standards and yet again stressed the urgent need and importance of improving standards for defending citizens’ rights.

During Yulia Tymoshenko’s imprisonment many medical experts have on a number of occasions reported deterioration in her state of health with this causing her to be kept in hospital. Clearly the conditions in which this treatment is being given are scarcely conducive to its effectiveness.

At the present time her state of health requires constant monitoring and observance in a specialized medical establishment with this being difficult to provide effectively in penal conditions.

As of April 2013 Yulia Tymoshenko has served a considerable part of the sentence imposed by the court.

It is clear that those possibilities for achieving the objectives which the sentence was supposed to achieve have long been exhausted.

Bearing in mind that in the case over which Yulia Tymoshenko is serving her sentence, all procedural moves have been completed, and in view of your position, Mr President, regarding the need to humanize the system for serving sentences, and also taking into account European human rights standards which require the provision of effective medical care to people held in places of confinement, we would ask you to pardon Yulia Tymoshenko and to free her on the basis of Article 85 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code.

On behalf of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union,

Yevhen Zakharov, Head of the Board

Arkady Bushchenko, Executive Director

UHHRU is a nongovernmental, non-profit-making and non-political nationwide association of civic organizations. In accordance with Item 2.1 of its Charter, the objectives of UHHRU activities include promoting the practical implementation of Ukraine’s human rights obligations.

Pursuant to Item 2.3 of the UHHRU Charter, “In order to achieve the objective and tasks as expressed by the Charter, the Association has the right 2.3.2 to put forward its proposals to state authorities and bodies of local self-government  , 2.3.7 to put forward initiatives on various issues of public life.”

UHHRU activity is aimed at affirming humanitarian norms, charity, standards of justice and rule of law.