March 5, 2012
PRESS RELEASE
UWC VERY DISTURBED OVER SENTENCING OF YURI LUTSENKO
The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) is very disturbed over the sentencing on February 27, 2012 of Ukraine’s former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko by the Pechers’k District Court to four years’ imprisonment. The conviction is the most recent in a series of prosecutions of the political opposition by Ukrainian authorities.
The UWC concurs with the statements made by high-level international institutions and leading world states which emphasize that the Ukrainian legal system does not adhere to international standards and that violations of the rule of law and fundamental human rights and freedoms continue in Ukraine.
“The fact that, prior to the parliamentary elections, the leaders of two opposition parties, Bat’kivschyna and Narodna samooborona, Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuri Lutsenko, are imprisoned is an extremely troubling signal regarding the fairness and transparency of these elections,” stated Ukrainian World Congress President Eugene Czolij.
The UWC is an international coordinating body for Ukrainian communities in the diaspora representing the interests of over 20 million Ukrainians. The UWC has member organizations in 32 countries and ties with Ukrainians in 14 additional countries. Founded in 1967 as a non-profit corporation, the UWC was recognized in 2003 as a non‑governmental organization (NGO) by the United Nations Economic and Social Council with special consultative status.
