On 4 April, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton and European Commissioner for Neighbourhood policy Štefan Füle issued a joint statement expressing their concern about the decision of the Ukrainian court to keep Yuriy Lutsenko in jail.
Lutsenko is serving a four year term for abuse of power and embezzlement, while Minister of Interior Affairs. However according to his family his health is deteriorating while in detention and in January he was sent to a hospital for an intestine surgery. The decision of Ukraine’s Higher Specialised Court for Civil and Criminal cases to uphold the verdict against Lutsenko caused the reaction of the EU.
Ashton and Füle stressed in their joint statement, “we recall our strong concern regarding his [Lutsenko] trial which did not respect international standards as regards fair, transparent and independent legal processes. These concerns were reinforced by the 3 July 2012 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights which held that his pre-trial arrest in December 2010 had been arbitrary and that the lawfulness of his arrest and detention had not been properly reviewed.” EU asked from the Ukrainian authorities to step up their cooperation with the European Parliament’s monitoring mission to Ukraine “to redress the effects and remove the concerns regarding selective justice.” The joint statement concluded saying that, this would also require “consideration of the health condition of Mr Lutsenko and implementation of further judicial reforms.”
According to Euronews, journalists were not let into the courtroom where Lutsenko was being held inside a glass-and-plastic box. According to AFP, the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych promised in early March that he would consider pardoning Lutsenko once the appeal process in Ukraine was exhausted.
On 1 March, Yanukovych said “I have known Yuriy Lutsenko for a long time and I am sorry for him as a person. He is suffering from the stupidities he committed... I am not happy that he is suffering,” the Ukrainian President said and added, “when the appeal court hearing ends, if it does not free him, I will review the issue of his pardon.”
