Poland urges Ukraine to change penal code over Tymoshenko – Regina Leader
STRBSKE PLESO – Poland’s president called on Ukraine Sunday to change its penal code and stop jailing politicians for their decisions, in reaction to Kyiv’s incarceration of ex-leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
“It’s necessary to change the penal code so politicians would bear political responsibility for their decisions but not face a prison term,” President Bronislaw Komorowski said after meeting his Slovak and Czech counterparts.
“We would like to help remove the source of suffering, which is the law allowing the punishment of political decisions as crimes.”
Former prime minister Tymoshenko, who was sentenced to seven years in prison last October on charges relating to a gas deal she had brokered with Russia in 2009, launched a hunger strike on April 20 to protest an alleged beating she received in prison.
Komorowski said the presidents were “satisfied” with news that she had agreed to undergo treatment for her ongoing back problems in Ukraine.
The Tymoshenko sentence has seriously damaged ties between Kyiv and the European Union, which Ukraine hopes to join.
The jailing also raised a wave of solidarity among European politicians, many of whom – including German Chancellor Angela Merkel – have threatened to skip the Euro 2012 football championships co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland from June 8.
Komorowski, who earlier this week described all calls for a boycott “completely inappropriate”, repeated his stance Sunday, adding the tournament was “a joint success of Ukraine and Poland.”
He added he would also attend a May 11-12 regional summit in Yalta, Ukraine, shunned by scores of Central and Eastern European leaders in protest against Tymoshenko’s jailing.
Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic also said he would go to Yalta, and called for an open dialogue with Ukraine, which may “be useful for us, Ukraine, and the EU,” he said.
The presidents of Poland and Slovakia met with Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus in northern Slovakia at a two-day summit of the so-called Visegrad-four group, which also includes Hungary, whose newly elected President Janos Ader excused himself from the meeting.