KIEV, June 15 (Itar-Tass) - Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius also stressed in an interview with RFE/RL that the release of Timoshenko would be the understandable decision to dismiss all doubt about selective justice in Ukraine.
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and four other Senators have co-authored a resolution calling for Timoshenko’s release from prison in light of the recent European Court of Human Rights ruling.
“The Senate calls on the Government of Ukraine to release former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko from imprisonment in light of the April 2013 European Court of Human Rights verdict. The Senate calls on the European Union members to include the release of Ms. Timoshenko from imprisonment as an important criterion for signing an association agreement with Ukraine at the upcoming Eastern Partnership Summit in Lithuania,” the draft resolution says.
Jean-Claude Mignon, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), earlier called on the Ukrainian authorities to swiftly find a solution, in line with Council of Europe principles, to the problems arising from the selective application of justice - primarily, the emblematic cases of Timoshenko and Lutsenko - and to reform the legal system to avoid any repeat of these problems. He also recalled that Ukraine had committed itself to respect the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on this question.
Timoshenko is now undergoing medical treatment at a hospital in Kharkov. She fell ill on August 18, 2011, two weeks after her arrest.
Timoshenko’s daughter Eugenia Timosheno said they urgently need help from the independent doctors of Berlin’s Charite hospital to find out why her mother’s health has deteriorated sharply.
“We have asked the German doctors whether they can come back to examine my mother. We hope that they can because this is a very dangerous situation. We are in a panic because we don’t know what’s going on with her because we can’t see her,” Eugenia Timoshenko said.
Yulia Timoshenko’s lawyer Sergei Vlasenko said she is unable to get out of bed and the Kharkov doctors have been unable to make a diagnosis. "Yulia Timoshenko’s health has deteriorated and the reasons are unknown,” he said.
Timoshenko mistrusts Ukrainian medics and rejected their help. She insists that she be examined by independent medics.
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 national interests.
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 may also be incriminated in the MP Yevgeny Shcherban assassination case in which she is alleged to be the mastermind of the crime and ex-Prime Minister Pvel Lazarenko its perpetrator.
On January 18, 2013, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office provided Timoshenko with notice informing her that she is suspected of involvement in the killing of MP Shcherban.
Prosecutor General Pshonka said Timoshenko might be sentenced to life imprisonment in this case.