Tymoshenko is granted asylum
The husband of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been granted political asylum in the Czech Republic, the second high-profile Ukrainian to receive such status in less than year.
Oleksandr Tymoshenko, a businessman who largely kept out of politics, made his request late in 2011, the Interior Ministry confirmed.
“Today’s decision is a decision by the Interior Ministry and not by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. It means it is an internal affair of the Czech Republic,” Interior Minister Jan Kubice said Jan. 6.
“The Interior Ministry does not release any information during asylum proceedings as a matter of principle. We only announce whether the applicant succeeded or not.”
While officials are wary of commenting publicly on the case out of fears it might damage relations with Ukraine, the perception among leaders of most European Union member states is that the jailing of Yulia Tymoshenko late last year came as Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych sought to eliminate his highest-profile political adversary. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in brokering a price for the transit of Russian gas across Ukrainian territory in 2009, which prosecutors argued was against national interests and a criminal misuse of power. Tymoshenko has since requested the European Court of Human Rights consider her case.
In late December, she was transferred from a Kyiv detention center to a prison camp nearly 500 kilometers from the capital. That move occurred just days after several international newspapers, including The Prague Post, published a column penned by Tymoshenko from behind bars.
Oleksandr Tymoshenko was recently named a defendant in a series of criminal cases involving United Energy Systems of Ukraine, a company his wife had overseen in the 1990s. In 2005, Ukrainian prosecutors dismissed several criminal cases involving United Energy Systems, but they have resurfaced since Yulia Tymoshenko went to prison.
Ukrainian police took Oleksandr Tymoshenko into custody in 2000 under allegations of corruption and embezzlement, but he was later freed without being charged. According to the Czech Commercial Register, he owns a one-third share in International Industrial Projects, a firm based in Ústí nad Labem.
Last year, Prague also granted asylum to Bohdan Danylyshyn, a former economics minister in Yulia Tymoshenko’s Cabinet, whom Ukrainian authorities were also seeking to prosecute for abuse of power. The Ukrainian government reacted by expelling two employees of the Czech Embassy in Kyiv, accusing them of espionage. Danylyshyn has since founded an NGO and worked with fellow exiles in opposition to the Yanukovych government.
The daily Právo broke the story of Oleksandr Tymoshenko’s asylum request Jan. 6, citing Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who was quoted as saying he heard about the request from Kubice during a “smoke break.”
“It is obvious from the conversation that the Interior Ministry has decided to grant the asylum,” Schwarzenberg said.
Tymoshenko’s request had been granted by day’s end.
There are more than 117,000 Ukrainians living in the Czech Republic, more than any other foreign national group. They account for a full 1 percent of the country’s population.
As of press time, the Ukrainian government had not commented on Oleksandr Tymoshenko’s asylum.
Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com