The United States has backed a statement issued by U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and European People’s Party (EPP) President Wilfried Martens urging the Ukrainian authorities to release former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on bail.

“We have concerns. We want to ensure that this case is not politically motivated,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told journalists at a briefing, reports All Headline News.

Earlier Senator McCain and EPP President Martens in a statement called on, “the (Ukrainian) authorities to release on bail Yulia Tymoshenko. We expect that her bail conditions will be on par with the bail standards of countries of the European Union, which Ukraine seeks to be associated with.”

The duo also urged the authorities, “to allow Yulia Tymoshenko to exercise her constitutional right to be examined by a doctor of her choice.”

In the statement the two conservative leaders said, “Ukraine has just celebrated twenty years since its independence from Soviet rule. During these years, the Ukrainian people have been working hard to consolidate democratic freedoms and to anchor their country in Euro-Atlantic structures.”

Citing “Ukraine's membership and current chairmanship of the Council of Europe – the pan-European organization that promotes human rights, democratic development, and the rule of law,” as “a great achievement of the Ukrainian nation,” the two leaders noted, “Yet, today we are witnessing certain practices from the Ukrainian authorities that are reminiscent of pre-independence rule.”

“The current trial of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the judicial practices surrounding this trial, is increasingly seen as selective prosecution of members of the opposition in Ukraine,” McCain and Martens said in their statement.

Tymoshenko was arrested for contempt of court on August 5 in her ongoing trial on charges of abuse of power. Tymoshenko and her supporters say the trial is a vendetta pursued by political rival President Viktor Yanukovych.

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