Presidential commission finds no grounds to pardon Tymoshenko

The Ukrainian presidential commission on pardons will not recommend President Viktor Yanukovych to grant Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s pardon request.

The presidential web site said the commission made this decision on Saturday.

“While considering the issue, the commission decided that, as long as investigations into criminal cases, in which Tymoshenko has been accused of committing serious and especially serious crimes, have not yet been completed and courts have not handed down their rulings on them, the issue of her pardon is premature,” it said, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

The report says that the commission took into account the conclusion by the National University “Yaroslav the Wise Law Academy of Ukraine”, Taras Shevchenko National University, the Legislation Institute of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which says that it is premature to address the issue of pardon before the trials in the criminal cases against Tymoshenko are completed and judgments are passed.

“Thus, given the magnitude of the crimes committed by Tymoshenko, as well as the fact that she has served only a small part of the sentence passed by the court, and that the defendant is suspected and charged with having committed other offenses and the court has not yet passed its judgments in these criminal cases, the commission on pardons under the president of Ukraine found no grounds to make a petition for pardon,” the statement reads.