Ukraine ruling party to present its Tymoshenko proposals today

Ukraine’s ruling Party of Regions will propose today, November 4, its amendments to legislation submitted by independent MP Anzhelika Labunska to arrange for the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, news reports said. Party of Regions MPs said they agree to the bill’s basic terms, such as giving prisoners the right to seek medical treatment abroad if they spent at least a year of uninterrupted treatment that didn’t result in recovery. What they don’t agree upon is the legislation’s second key condition: upon ruling on a convict’s treatment abroad, the judge must also rule on whether to grant freedom altogether owing to poor health, without overturning the conviction.

 

The Party of Regions’ amendments – to be presented at a parliamentary committee session – require that the prisoner seeking medical treatment abroad return to Ukraine to fulfill the remainder of the prison sentence, the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper reported on November 4, citing Party of Regions MP Volodymyr Oliynyk. A guarantee of the prisoner’s return must offered by the accepting nation, which is also responsible for informing the Ukrainian government in writing a month in advance of the prisoner’s return. The amendments seek to limit the criminal statutes by which a convict can seek treatment, excluding murderers and repeat offenders. They also require that the prisoner seeking treatment abroad pay damages for the crime.

 

Compromises offered by Oliynyk include dropping an amendment that would require Tymoshenko to be under 24-hour guard, which would require signing an intergovernmental agreement, Kommersant reported. The length of treatment could be determined by medical officials, whose conclusions can also be used to decide whether the time spent under treatment can be counted towards the remaining incarceration term.

 

The amendment drawing the most opposition from the EU leadership is the requirement that Tymoshenko return to Ukraine to serve the remainder of her prison sentence. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not allow Tymoshenko’s return to incarceration in Ukraine, said former Friedrich Ebert Foundation Kyiv Bureau Head Winfried Schneider-Deters, as reported by the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia website (zn.ua) on November 2. In offering treatment at the Charite clinic in Berlin, the German government expects her freedom afterwards and won’t sign any agreement on restricting her political activity, he said. Meanwhile, opposition MPs rejected the proposal that Tymoshenko should pay a fine for her crime, which a district court in Ukraine ruled at about $185 million.

 

Tymoshenko issued a November 1 statement requesting that parliament approve the Labunska legislation, without waiting for the amendments submitted by the Party of Regions. Tymoshenko’s support for the Labunska bill was echoed by the parliament’s other two opposition factions.

 

Zenon Zawada: The Labunska bill is a breakthrough in the negotiations surrounding Tymoshenko’s fate, now earning the endorsement of both the EU and Ukrainian opposition, which have agreed to remove a huge hurdle in dropping their demands for a pardon. Clearly, the moral burden has now shifted to the administration of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to accommodate these concessions offered by the EU and Tymoshenko.

 

The new main hurdle is what formal agreement will be reached on Tymoshenko’s fate once her medical treatment is completed. We support a solution that includes the proposal of EU diplomat Aleksander Kwasniewski, who suggested in Yalta in mid-September that Tymoshenko undergo a long hiatus consisting of “operation, therapy, rehabilitation,” combined with the clause of the Labunska bill that allows a judge to offer freedom without overturning a conviction.

 

That is the ideal solution in that it satisfies Yanukovych’s desire to ensure that Tymoshenko is not in Ukraine during the 2015 presidential election campaign. It also allows the EU to save face because it won’t involve any requirement that Tymoshenko be under 24-hour guard or be returned to serve her remaining prison sentence in Ukraine, a demand that the Yanukovych administration will have to compromise on. The Kwasniewski proposal will depend on Tymoshenko voluntarily fulfilling her extended treatment without returning to Ukraine.

 

We think it’s realistic for Tymoshenko to agree to sit out the presidential elections, or at least be involved only from a distance in Germany, which the Yanukovych administration doesn’t seem to mind so much, at least judging by the compromises (reported by Kommersant) to have been offered by MP Oliynyk. He also made no mention of a previously suggested requirement that the EU ensure she’s not involved in politics, which we view as a concession by the Yanukovych administration. Realizing it can’t require the EU to engage in such anti-democratic agreements, it’s apparent from news reports that the Yanukovych administration will simply arrest Tymoshenko again and file new criminal charges should she decide to return to Ukraine.

 

In summary, with the demand for a pardon removed, we believe it’s entirely possible to find a solution to the Tymoshenko puzzle. If a deal doesn’t happen, we believe it will be because of the unreasonable demands of the Yanukovych administration after both the EU and Tymoshenko have agreed to significant compromises.