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EU 'deeply disappointed' at Ukraine Tymoshenko appeal KO

29 August 2012, 16:18 CET
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EU 'deeply disappointed' at Ukraine Tymoshenko appeal KO

Yulia Tymoshenko - Photo EU Council

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union expressed its "deep disappointment" on Wednesday after Ukraine's high court rejected jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko's appeal against her abuse of power conviction.

"We have noted with regret the outcome," Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, told a regular press conference.

He said the EU is "deeply disappointed" at judicial proceedings that prevent two key opposition figures from standing for parliamentary elections "following trials which did not respect international standards."

The other figure Mann was referring to was former Ukrainian interior minister Yury Lutsenko, who was jailed after another controversial trial and is challenging his arrest and detention at the European Court of Human Rights.

The rejection of Tymoshenko's appeal marks the end of her domestic legal recourse and clears the way for her also to take her full case to the Strasbourg court -- a move the defence had been kept from making by months of judicial delays.

After Ukraine's highest appeals authority agreed that the 2004 Orange Revolution leader had no authority to seal a controversial gas deal with Russia in 2009, Mann said the Ukrainian authorities had to "take concrete steps" to adress "systemic problems" of "selective justice."

Despite threats of being cut off from Western nations that view the case as political, the judicial panel also left in place Tymoshenko's seven-year jail sentence and $190 million fine while finding no grounds to her claim that she had been made the victim of political persecution.


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