Abuse of power in Ukraine
Tymoshenko's lawyer threatened with imprisonment
Rebecca Harms, Co-Chair of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament is following the development of the possible revoking today in Kiev of parliamentary deputy Sergei Vlasenko's mandate. Vlasenko is legal adviser to Yulia Tymoshenko and is also a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament. The court hearing will take place today from 2 pm. Rebecca Harms stated:
"Once again I am witnessing power in Ukraine being abused in order to bend the law and weaken political opponents. There is no plausible legal basis for the prosecution of Sergei Vlasenko. The proposal to revoke his mandate as Member of Parliament would constitute an attack on the results of the recent parliamentary elections. I appeal to the President of the Parliament Rybak and Prime Minister Azarov to respect the will of the Ukrainian electorate. There are several cases where attempts were made to revoke the mandates of MPs. This is incompatible with Ukrainian electoral law and the OSCE rules. It is scandalous that the country which currently holds the OSCE Chairmanship should choose to violate the OSCE rules."
