With the Feb. 25 Ukraine-European Union summit drawing near, Ukraine is trying to demonstrate to its European partners that it’s making progress towards improving its human rights record and the rule of law.
With new charges of murder rolled out against imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko complicating the situation, the authorities turned their attention to another VIP prisoner about whom the EU has voiced concern: former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko.
Lutsenko is considered one of Ukraine’s top political prisoners. After becoming the nation’s top cop starting in 2005, Lutsenko – an ally of Tymoshenko — probed many of today’s ruling leaders and lawmakers in criminal investigations.
Authorities reportedly this month made an offer that could potentially lead to his release, but Lutsenko turned it down. His return to prison on Jan. 30, after a sudden discharge from a hospital just days after undergoing complicated surgery, was interpreted by many observers as retaliation for his refusal to cooperate.
The EU has set a condition that Ukraine needs to demonstrate commitment to democratic principles and the rule of law to have any chance of signing an Association Agreement with the 27-nation body in November. The Feb. 25 summit in Brussels is a checkpoint on that way, and Ukraine’s actions are going to be scrutinized.
Western diplomats have told the Kyiv Post that Ukraine’s well-wishing European partners are scrambling to demonstrate Ukraine’s goodwill. The nation’s authorities have made an attempt to deliver, but apparently failed and possibly even cornered themselves further.
Lutsenko’s wife, Iryna, a newly elected member of parliament, said an offer was made earlier this month that could have ended her husband’s prison term. She said on TVi channel that the proposal came from someone within the ruling Party of Regions, influential and with “close access” to the president.
“These politicians passed on a message that if he writes a plea for pardon, he will be released,” she said, but wouldn’t name who made the proposition.
Under Ukrainian law, the president pardons criminals.
The president’s spokeswoman did not comment on this issue.
Lutsenko was sentenced in February 2012 to four years got abuse-of-office and embezzlement charges. He was incarcerated for more than a year before his sentence, in December 2010.
His health has deteriorated sharply in prison. Lutsenko had surgery on Jan. 23, three days after being transferred to a private Kyiv clinic from Mensk colony in northern Ukraine, where he is serving his term.
His wife said the recent operation was complicated as he had about 20 polyps removed from his intestine. He still has three stomach ulcers, and other complications, and requires as additional operation when his heath stabilizes, said Iryna.
The former interior minister, however, did not accept the proposal. “If Lutsenko writes a plea for pardon, this will be a precedent in Ukraine. This will be legitimization of Yanukovych’s crimes. He’s not a criminal, he’s a political opponent of the authorities,” his wife said.
Volodymyr Ariev, a parliament deputy and a member of Lustenko’s People’s Self-Defense Party, said similar proposals have been made before to Lutsenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
They have been refused because both of them have maintained their innocence. “The main aim of the authorities is to break them, to make them crawl on their knees,” Ariev said.
Ukraine’s Penitentiary Service denied that Lutsenko’s release from hospital was out of the ordinary. Zurab Malazoniya, head of the medical department at the service, said there was no need to keep Lutsenko in hospital any longer.
“Lutsenko’s doctor took the decision to discharge the patient because, as the medical conclusion of Oberig clinic says, after the manipulations, the state of the patient improved, and he had no complains of pain,” the State Penitentiary Service quoted him in a Jan. 30 statement.
The latest developments came as the government was preparing to pay compensation awarded to Lutsenko by the European Court for Human Rights in July. The court then ruled that he was a political prisoner, was detained unlawfully and ordered the Ukrainian authorities to restore his rights and pay 15,000 euros in compensation.
Nazar Kulchytsky, Ukraine’s ombudsman on European Court of Human Rights, told Ukrainian media that the money was paid out on Jan. 25.
Lutsenko’s sudden discharge from the hospital raised concerns with EU, which released a statement just hours after it.
“We’re calling on the Ukrainian authorities to undertake responsibility for the humanitarian aspects and the situation with Lutsenko’s state of health, as well as for the risks connected with his return to prison,» the statement said. The EU also urged the Ukrainian authorities to let Lutsenko meet with his relatives and his defense team.
Tymoshenko’s chances of being released from prison, however, appeared to dim after prosecutors alleged she was involved in the 1996 murder of Donetsk member of parliament Yevhen Shcherban, an allegation she denies. The ex-prime minister, who came within 3.5 percentage points of being elected president in 2010, is in her second year of a seven-year prison term for signing a gas deal with Russia.
Kyiv Post editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at gorchinskaya@kyivpost.com
