Criminal cases against supporters of Yulia Tymoshenko

Criminal cases against supporters of Yulia Tymoshenko — numerous criminal cases against supporters of Yulia Tymoshenko, which have been launched in Ukraine since May 2010, after the arrival to power of Viktor Yanukovych. In all those cases, the General Procurator's Office does not charge Tymoshenko's associates with «stealing or appropriating funds», none of them were charged with taking or paying bribes — mainly, they are accused of «abuse of office» and «exceeding official powers» (Articles 364 and 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), see paragraph 2 of the PACE resolution of 27 January 2012. As for those cases, there exist several statements by the EU, the USA, the Human Right organizations, public organizations both within Ukraine and from Diaspora which indicate the political constituency of all those cases. Nevertheless, representatives of the Party of Regions insist that «the political constituency» is absent.

In 2011, Vaclav Havel said about the regime of Yanukovych: «Ukraine „a dictatorship in gloves“».

Since April 2010, a number of criminal cases have been initiated against Yulia Tymoshenko and her associates.

Political persecutions in Ukraine over «members of government and Tymoshenko's associates» were widely discussed in mass media of Ukraine, Europe, Russia and the USA.

On April 22, 2010, Yanukovych announced that the General Prosecutor of Ukraine had opened more than 30 criminal cases against members of the previous government. As for October 2011, more than fifteen associates from the Tymoshenko's Cabinet of Ministers have been under prosecution; half of them being on detention for 8–12 months. All of them were, basically, convicted in exceeding office authorities:

1) Prime-Minister Yulia Tymoshenko : «Tymoshenko herself was called in for questioning by authorities on at least nine occasions in December 2010».

2) Minister of Internal Affairs (04.02.2005 — 01.12.2006 and 18.12.2007 — 28.01.2010) — Yuriy Lutsenko.

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