The European Court of Human Rights has on 30 April 2013 delivered judgment in the case of Tymoshenko v Ukraine (49872/11) and unanimously found that Ukraine violated Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security); Article 5 § 4 (right to a speedy review of the lawfulness of detention); Article 5 § 5 (right to compensation for unlawful detention); and Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights) in conjunction with Article 5; of the European Convention on Human Rights. More specifically, it held :
298. … when it comes to allegations of political or other ulterior motives in the context of criminal prosecution, it is difficult to dissociate the pre-trial detention from the criminal proceedings within which such detention has been ordered (§ 108). However, like in the cited case, the Court discerns a number of specific features of the applicant’s pre-trial detention which allow it to look into the matter separately from the more general context of the allegedly politically motivated prosecution of the applicant as an opposition leader by instigating several criminal charges after the change of power and before the Parliamentary elections…
300. … the Court cannot but find that the restriction of the applicant’s liberty permitted under Article 5 § 1 (c) was applied not for the purpose of bringing her before a competent legal authority on reasonable suspicion of having committed an offence, but for other reasons.
301. The Court considers this sufficient basis for finding a violation of Article 18 of the Convention taken in conjunction with Article 5.
As it has been widely reported, Mrs Tymoshenko was released from hospital on last Saturday. This judgment is now of the few rendered against Ukraine which have been at least partially executed. It remains to be seen whether remaining judgments against Ukraine will be also so speedily executed.
Esohap 