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Timoshenko not to ask Yanukovich for pardon

Timoshenko will not file any petitions for pardon because she did not commit the crimes ascribed to her
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

KIEV, February 27 (Itar-Tass) —— Former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko will not ask Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich for pardon, her lawyer Sergei Vlasenko said.

“Timoshenko was angered by the cynicism uttered by Yanukovich on three national television channels in the evening of February 24,” Vlasenko.

He stressed that “there is no reason to turn to Yanukovich with such a request”.

“Timoshenko will not file any petitions for pardon because she did not commit the crimes ascribed to her,” the lawyer said said on Monday, February 26.

He recalled that Yanukovich had admitted the court’s failure to comply with democratic standards.

According to the lawyer, the president, as the guarantor of the Constitution and the rights and duties enshrined in it, has to respond appropriately using his power.

On February 24, Yanukovich said that he was ready to consider pardoning Timoshenko if she makes such a request and taking into account a new version of the Criminal Code to be adopted soon.

Yanukovich also said later that he did not expect so much international hullabaloo over the Timoshenko case.

“I did not expect hullabaloo from any country. I did not expect that we would be given instructions,” Yanukovich said.

The president agreed with Korotich that “it’s not clear why there is such hysteria over the Timoshenko case whereas no one said a word about the verdicts to former French President Jacques Chirac” and many others.

On October 11, 2011, Timoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for having acted in excess of her powers which had resulted in damage to the national interests of the country.

Timoshenko has also been barred from holding public positions for three years and has to pay a penalty of 189 million U.S. dollars in damages to Naftogaz Ukrainy.

In late December 2011, Timoshenko was transferred from the investigation prison to a penal colony in the eastern Kharkov region.

Timoshenko said earlier that she would not ask for pardon if she were found guilty.