Ukrainian president, Victor Yanukovych, signed a decree pardoning former Interior Minister and former Prime Minister’s Yulia Tymoshenko ally, Yuri Lutsenko.
A presidential statement said Mr Yanukovych had pardoned six people in order to "humanise legal norms and reduce the number of people held in custody". He also pardoned another Tymoshenko ally, former Environment minister Heorthiy Filipchuk . Mr Lutsenko was serving a four year sentence after being convicted on corruption charges. Ms Tymoshenko is serving a 7 year sentence for abuse of office. Mr Filipchuk was convicted for abuse of office.
Amid charges that both cases have been politically motivated, EU officials have repeatedly called for the release of both prisoners. The EU has warned that it will not sign a cooperation agreement with Kiev unless the issue is resolved.
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.
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.
The Ukrainian state prison service announced that Mr Lutsenko has already been released, Sunday morning
