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PACE Officials Visit Jailed Ukrainian Ex-Minister

29 March 2012 20:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) currently visting Kiev met on Thursday with Ukraine’s jailed former interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko, his wife said, APA reports quoting Ria Novosti.
Lutsenko, an ally of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, was arrested in December 2010. In late February he was sentenced to four years in prison for illegally employing and giving an apartment and pension to his former driver as well as of overspending government funds during Police Day celebrations in 2008 and 2009, when he was in office. A court will consider his appeal in May.
Ukrainian opposition supporters view his prosecution as a continuation of President Victor Yanukovychâ€™s crackdown on his political opponents.

Iryna Lutsenko said her husband met with two female PACE co-rapporteurs, who asked him about conditions inside prison and his health, which deteriorated when Lutsenko went on a hunger strike. Court hearings have repeatedly been postponed because of his poor health.
The ex-ministerâ€™s relatives claim he was diagnosed with cirrhosis, but penitentiary doctors have never officially confirmed the information.

His wife said that PACE will request that the Ukrainian authorities hold an independent health check.

"The authorities conceal [Lutsenkoâ€™s poor health], commissions that come [to check his health] are biased, there is no information whatsoever,â€ she said, adding that the co-rapporteurs â€œcame to a conclusion that this issue must be raised.â€
The meeting lasted more than two hours.
â€œThey also asked him about possible leverages to influence Ukraineâ€™s current leadership and how Lutsenko sees his and Tymoshenko political future before the polls,â€ Iryna said.

The PACE co-rapporteurs arrived in Kiev on March 27 for a two-day visit to oversee implementation of the Assemblyâ€™s January resolution, calling on Ukraine to amend the Criminal Code and decriminalize Article 365, which stipulates jail time for abuse of office. The amendment would effectively make it possible to release Tymoshenko and Lutsenko.