Ukrainian parliament didn't decriminalize article on which Tymoshenko was convicted
The Ukrainian parliament has again refused to decriminalize Articles 364 and 365 of the Criminal Code on which Yulia Tymoshenko was convicted.
A total of 161 of the 389 parliamentarians registered in the parliament session hall on Friday supported a bill submitted by Viktor Shvets, a member of the Batkivschyna faction, on December 14 (226 votes were needed for the bill to be approved).
On October 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for overstepping her authority when signing 2009 gas contracts with Russia. She has served her sentence in Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv since late December 2011. Tymoshenko was charged under Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of power and office). Since then the article has also become known as "the Tymoshenko article."
The parliament of the previous [sixth] convocation passed the presidential bill on humanization of economic crimes, which did not envisage decriminalization of the Tymoshenko article.
The BYT-Batkivschyna faction has submitted bills on decriminalization of the Tymoshenko article numerous times, but the parliamentary majority never supported them.
