PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteurs Mailis Reps and Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin are to visit Ukraine on April 14-16. The PACE press service has said that the purpose of their visit is to assess constitutional reform, the reform of the Criminal Code and the Prosecutor’s Office and also to study the situation with former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Moreover, the co-rapporteurs plan to meet with President Viktor Yanukovych, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Rybak, Minister of Justice Oleksandr Lavrynovych, Minister of Foreign Affairs Leonid Kozhara, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, the Ukrainian delegation to PACE and representatives of the international community and civic society.
The Day has received a letter from Oleksii Podolsky in which he as a victim in the Gongadze case is asking Reps to meet with him. He has also sent a request to this effect to PACE Representative in Ukraine Vladimir Ristovski. “I am infinitely grateful to the European institutions that represent the European peoples for their efficient solidarity with the Ukrainian people in the struggle for democracy, human rights and other values we share. At the same time, I am clearly aware that no one will put our house in order except us Ukrainians. This is the reason why I have never adopted the philosophy ‘Foreign countries will help us.’ This is also the reason why, in the 13 years that the Gongadze case has continued, I have been ready to meet, but have not sought these meetings myself, with PACE representatives who have listened to hundreds of official and unofficial falsifiers of this case but have never found 30 minutes for my humble person. Today, I would be thankful if you helped arrange my informative meeting with Ms. Mailis Reps during her visit to Ukraine.”
The readers will remember that in May 2012 Podolsky already submitted a similar request but the meeting never took place. When The Day asked Reps whether she had received a letter from Podolsky, she replied that she “did not see the letter.” What will her reaction be this time around? “Let me assure you that I have very grave reasons to seek a meeting with a PACE official representative who, I hope, is interested in having objective information on the case that is the topic of several official Council of Europe documents. (In particular, point 9 of PACE Resolution No. 1645 of January 27, 2009, is fully dedicated to the crime that was committed on orders from the highest leadership of the Ukrainian state against me, Oleksii Podolsky.),” Podolsky writes in his letter.
Information by The Day
