The US
Senate has threatened to impose political sanctions on Ukraine over the jailing
of former Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, urging Kiev to immediately release
the opposition leader.
The
Senate adopted a resolution on Saturday that stressed that the Tymoshenko trial
was “politically motivated” and urged her immediate release citing her poor
health condition.
The
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry dismissed the resolution, saying in a statement that
commenting on it would be “unreasonable”.
It
further claimed the resolution had been passed in great haste just minutes
before the end of the session, with “less than half a dozen acting members of
the chamber” still present.
“The
friends of the Tymoshenko team did everything to bring into the Ukrainian media
space yet another falsified pretext for groundless arguments and discrediting
of the upcoming parliamentary election. These efforts go against Ukraine’s
national interests and are bound to fail,” the ministry lashed out.
In
October 2011, Tymoshenko – President Viktor Yanukovich’s main political rival –
was found guilty of abuse of office over a 2009 gas deal with Russia. Since
then the former prime minister has been serving a seven-year sentence at a jail
in the city of Kharkov.
The
Senate resolution urged the State Department to recall the US Ambassador to
Ukraine and suspend the embassy’s activities until the former prime minister is
released.
The
legislators also proposed to impose visa sanctions on those responsible for
Tymoshenko's detention – a move that would deny incumbent President Viktor
Yanukovich and other top officials entry to the United States.
The
resolution however is not binding and is only a recommendation.
Kiev has
earlier come under harsh criticism from the US, the European Union and Russia
over the way Tymoshenko was treated. European capitals have called on Kiev to
commit to democratic principles and denounced the seven-year prison sentence
handed to Tymoshenko as politically-motivated.
Moscow
has repeatedly stressed that all the signed agreements fully correspond with
both Russian and Ukrainian law.
