MEP wants to visit Yulia Tymoshenko in prison

MEP Pawel Kowal, co-chair of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, wants Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka to allow MEPs to visit former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the Kachanivksa prison colony.

"The Ukrainian authorities failed to convince the international community that the Yulia Tymoshenko case was impartial. I, as the head of the delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, want the Prosecutor General’s Office to organize a visit with Yulia Tymoshenko for me and my colleagues from the European Parliament. We would also like to meet with Renat Kuzmin of the Prosecutor General’s Office to discuss problems with judicial reform and the imprisonment of members of the opposition," Pawel Kowal said in an interview with RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.

He believes a meeting would be useful for the MEPs as well as Yulia Tymoshenko. "If such an opportunity arose I would change my plans and go to the Kharkiv prison to meet with Tymoshenko. I think such a meeting would be good for her as a politician who has been removed from the political process. It would also be support for her as a person who has ended up in such a predicament. I know Tymoshenko personally. We met on numerous occasions when she was head of the Ukrainian government and later when she visited the European Parliament as one of the leaders of the Ukrainian opposition," he said.

The Polish MEP stressed that the Ukrainian authorities used outdated laws and standards to deal with political opponents. "I, like other European parliamentarians, believe the Tymoshenko case is an example of the Ukrainian government’s insincerity in the sphere of European integration," he noted.

"Look at these facts, they point to a practice far removed from European standards: Yulia Tymoshenko during the trial is held behind bars and foreign and Ukrainian human rights activists aren’t allowed to visit her; the trial takes place under difficult circumstances (for example, problems with the courtroom); in the pre-detention facility and prison Tymoshenko isn’t given the opportunity to undergo a normal medical exam and get medical care. Although last week an international team of doctors conducted an examination they weren’t able to do so immediately. I’m not going to instruct Ukraine and tell it how to reform its judicial system, but I would like to see sincerity in relations between Kyiv and Brussels, between Kyiv and Warsaw," stressed Pawel Kowal.