On August 1, Yulia Tymoshenko’s lawyers submitted a request to the Supreme Court through the High Specialized Court to revise and cancel the verdict for the ex-premier in the gas case. This request was based on the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in the Tymoshenko vs Ukraine case that listed a number of violations in the arrest of Tymoshenko.
On August 7, Tymoshenko’s lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko stated that the High Specialized Court interferes with the submission of application to the Supreme Court. He said that the High Specialized Court had three days to check the application for inaccuracies. In a conversation with Oleksandr Plakhotniuk, the other lawyer of Tymoshenko, High Specialized Court employees said that the application could be submitted to the panel of judges for consideration. A few minutes later, according to Vlasenko, they stated that the application did have inaccuracies but they could not show the lawyers the court’s decision on this at that moment.
On August 9, Tymoshenko’s lawyers submitted corrected application to the High Specialized Court.
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Today, the panel of judges ruled that “the revision of the Tymoshenko case by the European Court refers to the lawfulness of arrest as a preventive measure for the time the trial on the case, not the lawfulness of the court verdict”.
“The issue of fairness of criminal prosecution against her was not what the European Court of Human Rights considered,” the panel’s decision states.
The panel notes that the court followed the norms of the criminal proceedings legislation that were effective when the verdict was made.
“The court of cassation found that the provided Russian translation of the ECHR’s ruling dated April 30, 2013, on the Tymoshenko vs Ukraine case did not correspond to the authentic translation, in particular regarding details that are significant for accurate decision on whether the criminal case can proceed into trial,” the judges ruled.
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“The High Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases received the authentic translation of this ECHR ruling upon request to the Ministry of Justice,” the ruling states.
“Based on the authentic translation, the panel of judges ruled that, contrary to the statements of the applicant, all violations of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms found by the ECHR are linked to her arrest and detention before conviction, not the outcome of the criminal case,” their statement says.
“The ECHR ruling does not list specific measures regarding the results of consideration of Tymoshenko’s appeal,” the High Specialized Court’s decision states.
