A senior US senator said February 1 that Ukraine cannot advance its position with the West while imprisoning members of the opposition.
Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs chair Jeanne Shaheen said that politically motivated trials have already hurt the country’s progress, citing a major free trade agreement with the EU which was been held up over the imprisonment of the former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko.
“It will be difficult if not impossible for Ukraine to deepen relations with the West while Ms. Tymoshenko remains behind bars," Shaheen said, adding, "(Tymoshenko) should be released.”
Yesterday the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified in Congress that democracy in Ukraine is under siege and under President Yanukovych, Kyiv is drifting closer towards authoritarianism. The jailing of Yulia Tymoshenko is just one example of this growing trend.
While these developments in Ukraine don’t threaten American national security, they do present challenges to important US interests in the region, he said.
In October 2011 Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for abuse of power when signing the 2009 gas deal with Russia. She was recently transferred from Kyiv to a prison in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and is reportedly in poor health.
The conviction has been widely criticized both in Europe and the US as being politically motivated and an example of selective justice.
Tymoshenko’s daughter Eugenia has been championing her mother’s case in the parliaments of Europe. She testified in Congress today that Tymoshenko’s health is declining and she is kept under constant surveillance. She called on the US to continue to press for the release of her mother as well as other political prisoners, former members of the opposition.
"We're here to ask you to keep up this pressure because as we see with other cases around the world with political prisoners, this helps and the more we make sure that the regime and the people who are persecuting the opposition in Ukraine should know that they are under watch and their course of action should be changed," the younger Tymoshenko said. She said politicians should consider taking "restrictive measures to those (people) in particular who are creating this political repression and cynically continuing to do so despite signals from the democratic world."
The hearing was attended several members of President Yanukovych’s ruling Regions Party as well as his controversial deputy chief of staff Hanna Herman.
Written by Irena Chalupa in Washington
Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs chair Jeanne Shaheen said that politically motivated trials have already hurt the country’s progress, citing a major free trade agreement with the EU which was been held up over the imprisonment of the former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko.
“It will be difficult if not impossible for Ukraine to deepen relations with the West while Ms. Tymoshenko remains behind bars," Shaheen said, adding, "(Tymoshenko) should be released.”
Yesterday the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified in Congress that democracy in Ukraine is under siege and under President Yanukovych, Kyiv is drifting closer towards authoritarianism. The jailing of Yulia Tymoshenko is just one example of this growing trend.
While these developments in Ukraine don’t threaten American national security, they do present challenges to important US interests in the region, he said.
In October 2011 Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for abuse of power when signing the 2009 gas deal with Russia. She was recently transferred from Kyiv to a prison in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and is reportedly in poor health.
The conviction has been widely criticized both in Europe and the US as being politically motivated and an example of selective justice.
Tymoshenko’s daughter Eugenia has been championing her mother’s case in the parliaments of Europe. She testified in Congress today that Tymoshenko’s health is declining and she is kept under constant surveillance. She called on the US to continue to press for the release of her mother as well as other political prisoners, former members of the opposition.
"We're here to ask you to keep up this pressure because as we see with other cases around the world with political prisoners, this helps and the more we make sure that the regime and the people who are persecuting the opposition in Ukraine should know that they are under watch and their course of action should be changed," the younger Tymoshenko said. She said politicians should consider taking "restrictive measures to those (people) in particular who are creating this political repression and cynically continuing to do so despite signals from the democratic world."
The hearing was attended several members of President Yanukovych’s ruling Regions Party as well as his controversial deputy chief of staff Hanna Herman.
Written by Irena Chalupa in Washington
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