Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools
Sections
You are here: Home Breaking news Hungarian president-elect pulls out of Yalta summit

Hungarian president-elect pulls out of Yalta summit

07 May 2012, 20:07 CET
— filed under: , , ,

(BUDAPEST) - Hungarian president-elect Janos Ader will skip an upcoming summit in Ukraine, the foreign ministry said Saturday, amid concerns over the treatment of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

The opening day of the Yalta summit on May 11 "will be president Ader's first full day in office," ministry spokesman Gabor Koletta told AFP, without going into details.

In a separate statement, the ministry had explained that Ader would not attend owing to "official duties which cannot be postponed."

It also noted however that international criticism of "unfavorable tendencies" in Ukraine were mostly "justified."

Kiev has made no serious efforts to respect the human rights of detainees, including Tymoshenko and other opposition politicians, the ministry said.

More than half a dozen EU leaders have withdrawn from the two-day Yalta meeting amid increasingly public protests over the treatment of former premier Tymoshenko.

The European Commission and Austria have also announced that they would boycott next month's Euro 2012 football championship in Ukraine, a stance that could be adopted by several other European leaders as well.

On Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's office said he had not yet decided whether to attend.

Tymoshenko was jailed in October for alleged abuse of power in a case that the EU and United States say is politically motivated.

The 2004 Orange Revolution leader is now on a hunger strike after claiming to have been mistreated by prison guards.


Document Actions