BUDVA, MONTENEGRO, 9 April 2013 – OSCE PA President Wolfgang Grossruck welcomed the decision by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to pardon jailed former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, former Environmental Protection Minister Heorhiy Filipchuk, and four others.

In Montenegro, where he is leading a senior OSCE PA delegation to the country for a series of high-level meetings, Grossruck issued the following statement:

"I strongly support President Yanukovych's decision to pardon Ministers Lutsenko and Filipchuk and four others, which is a positive sign that Ukraine is taking seriously its OSCE human dimension commitments. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has consistently called on the Ukrainian authorities to uphold their democratic and human rights commitments with special attention to the fact that Ukraine holds the Chairmanship of the OSCE this year.

"Yesterday's announcement is a welcome indication of the government's good-faith effort to ensure compliance with the obligations to which they have freely agreed in various OSCE documents, and I congratulate the prisoners and their families on this excellent news. While it is a good first step in the right direction, I strongly hope that the next steps will follow soon."

At the Annual Session in Monaco last year, the OSCE PA adopted a resolution calling on Ukraine to guarantee a functioning, independent, and transparent judiciary by fulfilling its OSCE human dimension commitments, particularly with regard to the effective right to fair trial, as well as to adequate treatment of convicted persons. The resolution further affirmed "that there should not be any political prisoners in the OSCE area."