Catherine Ashton & Stefan Füle comment on the review by Ukraine’s Higher Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases in the case of Yuriy Lutsenko

Brussels, 4-4-2013 — /europawire.eu/ — Joint Statement by EU High Representative, Catherine Ashton, and Commissioner Stefan Füle on the review by Ukraine’s Higher Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases in the case of Yuriy Lutsenko.

Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, and Štefan Füle, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, made today the following statement:

“We have noted with regret yesterday’s decision by Ukraine’s Higher Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases to uphold the verdict against Mr Yuriy Lutsenko of four years’ imprisonment.

We recall our strong concern regarding his trial which did not respect international standards as regards fair, transparent and independent legal processes. These concerns were reinforced by the 3 July 2012 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights which held that his pre-trial arrest in December 2010 had been arbitrary and that the lawfulness of his arrest and detention had not been properly reviewed.

We commend the efforts undertaken by the European Parliament’s monitoring mission to Ukraine headed by former Presidents Cox and Kwaśniewski. We call on the Ukrainian authorities to step up cooperation with the mission to redress the effects and remove the concerns regarding selective justice. This would also require, among other issues, consideration of the health condition of Mr Lutsenko and implementation of further judicial reforms.

We will continue to monitor closely developments in Ukraine and we look forward to the full implementation of the conclusions of the 10 December 2012 Foreign Affairs Council and 25 February 2013 EU-Ukraine Summit.”

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