Kyiv-Post

5 March 2012

Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Walburga Habsburg Douglas has said she regrets that she was denied permission to visit former Ukrainian Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko in the Kachanivska penal colony in Kharkiv.

"A functioning legal system and the guarantee of legal security are among the most important democratic principles a country needs to uphold. It is unfortunate that we were prevented from meeting with Yulia Tymoshenko, and the denial of our request I hope will draw greater attention to deficiencies in the rule of law and democracy in Ukraine," the OSCE press service quoted her as saying.

The OSCE said that in lieu of their meeting with the incarcerated former prime minister, the delegation and four Ukrainian parliamentarians from various political parties met with the prison director and asked the prison to end its 24-hour video surveillance of Tymoshenko and allow her to be visited by national and international colleagues.

The statement also notes that two weeks ago two other members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly leadership, Dutch MPs Coskun Coruz and Kathleen Ferrier, visited Kyiv for discussions about rule of law and judicial training. Ukrainian authorities denied their requests to visit Tymoshenko in Kharkiv.

As reported, representatives of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly could not meet with Tymoshenko in the Kachanivska penal colony on Monday, as their meeting was not agreed with the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. The chief of the colony, Ivan Pervushkin, said that the delegation had been denied permission to visit Tymoshenko, as the visit was not agreed first with the Foreign Ministry.

A statement posted on the Web site of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine notes that the delegation left the colony at 1230.

Tymoshenko's defense lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, was allowed to meet with the prisoner.

"As of 1330, this meeting was still going on," reads the statement.