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Timoshenko, Lutsenko still has chance to become parliamentary candidates

However effective legislation does not allow a convict to run for parliament

KIEV, August 13 (Itar-Tass) —— The Ukrainian Central Election Commission will reconsider the question of registering former Prime Minister and opposition Batkivshchina party leader Yulia Timoshenko and ex-Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko as Verkhovna Rada (parliament) candidates, if the Higher Administrative Court makes such a decision

“Regardless [of the court ruling], it will enter into force upon delivery and the Central Election Commission will be able to consider including the candidates in the lists on the basis of the court ruling even after the end of the registration,” CERC Deputy Chairman Andrei Magera said on Monday, August 13.

Earlier, Kiev’s Court of Appeals refused to uphold the opposition Batkivshchina party’s demand to register Timoshenko and Lutsenko as candidates.

The court supported with the Central Election Commission’s resolution denying registration because both have outstanding convictions.

On July 30, a congress of the united opposition resolved that Timoshenko would lead the list of opposition candidates in the parliamentary elections slated for October 28.

Lutsenko is on the list as well.

However effective legislation does not allow a convict to run for parliament.

On October 20, 2011, the Prosecutor General's Office cancelled the decision to close the criminal case against Timoshenko in which she was charged with embezzlement of more than 25 million hryvnia (more than 10 million U.S. dollars at the exchange rate of 1995-1997, when Timoshenko headed the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine) and tax evasion in the amount of more than 20 million hryvnia.

On October 11, 2011, Kiev's Pechersky District Court sentenced Yulia Timoshenko to seven years in prison.

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 correctional facility in the eastern Kharkov region.

Timoshenko is also facing new charges as former head of the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine.

Timoshenko is now undergoing medical treatment at a Kharkov hospital under the supervision of doctors from the German Charite clinic.

Ex-Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko was detained on December 26, 2010 by the Security Service near his home. On December 27, 2010, the Pechersky Court ordered him into custody. The trial has been on since May 2011. The majority of 150 witnesses called to testify in court spoke in his support, and one-third did not show up.

Lutsenko said the verdict in his case was politically motivated and he would prove his case legally and politically.