Ukrainian opposition tries to release Yulia Tymoshenko

Deputies of opposition party Fatherland, Yuri Odarchenko and Stepan Kurpil, proposed a bill to pardon prisoners on health grounds. The convicts, who have sserved at least a quarter of their sentence, may thus be released early, if they spent more than a half of their sentence at hospital.

The bill, if approved, will not touch upon murderers and drug dealers. It will not embrace those who committed crimes against the world and humanity.

Experts believe that the opposition is trying to thereby release Yulia Tymoshenko. Previously, during the start of the protest actions on Maidan, the Parliament rejected such bills.

The release of Yulia Tymoshenko was one of the key requirements of the opposition. Tymoshenko, a former Prime Minister, was jailed for seven years in 2011, when she was convicted of abuse of power in negotiations with Russia on gas supplies.