The case of former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, is matter of deep concern to Ireland and to the European Union. The Deputy will be aware that Ms Tymoshenko was sentenced on 11 October 2011 to seven years in prison, and was the subject of a three-year ban on holding high public office and an order to repay €130m to the state-owned gas company having been convicted of exceeding her authority as Prime Minister when concluding a gas deal with Russia in 2009. Her verdict was upheld in December 2011.
Since Ms Tymoshenko was imprisoned, there have been troubling reports about the state of her health, as well as deeply serious allegations that she was subject to physical mistreatment when being transferred to a prison hospital last month. I understand that she is currently being treated by an independent medical doctor from a German hospital. Ms Tymoshenko was visited by the then Ombudsman and Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights on 24 April. A visit by two rapporteurs on Ukraine from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is expected this week. I urge the Ukrainian authorities, as a minimum, to facilitate all such medical and human rights related visits.
The High Representative for Human Rights of the European Union, Catherine Ashton, has called on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the full respect of the right of Ms Tymoshenko to adequate medical assistance in an appropriate institution and that the European Union Ambassador, accompanied by independent medical specialists be allowed to visit Ms Tymoshenko in prison. I fully support that call.
More broadly, the EU has drawn attention to its concerns about the number of instances of what appear to be politically motivated trials and convictions and this message was reiterated yesterday in the EU-Ukraine Cooperation Council in Ukraine. The EU has stressed that this issue, and the need to examine promptly and impartially any complaints of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as ensuring adequate medical attention for those in detention, including Ms Tymoshenko, will be central to any further progress in advancing relations between the EU and Ukraine. I have strongly supported this position. Ireland has long favoured closer ties between the EU and Ukraine, which are clearly to the benefit of both sides. However, recent events have, unfortunately, undermined the progress that we all wish to see.
In the meantime, the issue of the conditions of Ms Tymoshenko and the wider rule of law questions raised by her imprisonment and that of other political figures will remain high on the EU's agenda. Indeed, along with my EU Foreign Minister colleagues, I engaged in a thorough discussion of this issue at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday, 14 January.
