The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that the arrest of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on charges of exceeding her powers when signing the 2009 gas supply contracts with Russia was politically motivated and was conducted in violation of her rights.

The ECHR announced this judgment on Tuesday.

"In today's Chamber judgment in the case of Tymoshenko v. Ukraine (application no. 49872/11), which is not final, the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been: a violation of Article 5 section 1 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights; a violation of Article 5 section 4 (right to a speedy review of the lawfulness of detention); a violation of Article 5 section 5 (right to compensation for unlawful detention); a violation of Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights) in conjunction with Article 5; and it held, by a majority, that there had been no violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment)," reads the judgment delivered by the ECHR in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

"The court held in particular: that Ms Tymoshenko's pre-trial detention had been arbitrary; that the lawfulness of her detention had not been properly reviewed; and that she had no possibility to seek compensation for the unlawful deprivation of her liberty. The court also found that, given that the judge had referred to her alleged hindering of the proceedings and contemptuous behavior, her right to liberty had been restricted for other reasons than those permissible under Article 5," the judgment reads.

The European Court noted that Tymoshenko's detention pending trial had been ordered for an indefinite period of time, which in itself was contrary to the requirements of Article 5. The Court said that it found in other cases against Ukraine that this had been a recurrent issue resulting from legislative lacunae.

The ECHR said that the lawfulness of Tymoshenko's detention had been reviewed by the Ukrainian courts on several occasions.

"However, the relevant court decisions did not satisfy the requirements of paragraph 4 of Article 5 of the Convention, as they had been confined to the mere statement that no appeal was possible against a ruling on change of a preventive measure ordered during the examination of a criminal case." Meanwhile, Tymoshenko provided specific arguments in her applications for release – in particular her unfailing compliance with the obligation not to leave town and the fact that she had made no attempt to obstruct the investigation. The Ukrainian court dismissed her requests without having given any consideration to those arguments, the ECHR said.

"Furthermore, the European Court had already found in other cases that Ukrainian law did not provide for a procedure to review the lawfulness of continued detention after the completion of a pre-trial investigation that would satisfy the requirements of paragraph 4 of Article 5. There had accordingly been a violation of paragraph 4 of Article," the ruling reads.

When explaining its decision to recognize the detention of the ex-premier as politically motivated, the court noted that Tymoshenko was detained after the change of power and before the parliamentary elections.

"In the light of these considerations and using a similar approach to the one which it has applied to the legal interpretation of the comparable circumstances in the [former interior minister Yuriy] Lutsenko case, the court cannot but find that the restriction of the applicant's liberty permitted under paragraph 1 of Article 5 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," the judgment reads..

The court considers this sufficient basis for finding a violation of Article 18 of the Convention taken in conjunction with Article 5.

At the same time, the court held by a majority of votes that there had been no violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) in respect of Tymoshenko's alleged ill-treatment during her transfer to hospital on April 20, 2012 and the effectiveness of the investigation of those complaints.

"The court noted that the location of Ms Tymoshenko's bruises – on her stomach and arms – was consistent with her account that she had been violently pulled from her bed and punched in the stomach on the day of her transfer to the hospital. Nevertheless, the court could not ignore the medical evidence before it that the apparent age of the bruises had not corresponded with the time she had indicated and that there had been other possible origins of the bruising which did not involve external trauma. Those findings could only have been satisfactorily confirmed or refuted if Ms Tymoshenko had undergone a full forensic medical examination, which she had refused to allow on two occasions. Given the absence of such forensic evidence, resulting from her decision not to undergo the examination, the court could not find it established to the necessary standard of proof that the bruising had resulted from treatment in breach of Article 3 during her transfer to hospital on 20 April 2012," the ruling reads.

The European Court also said that under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, this judgment is not final. "During the three-month period following its delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a panel of five judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a final judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day. Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for supervision of its execution," the ruling reads.

As reported, on October 11, 2011, the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for exceeding her authority when signing gas supply contracts with Russia in 2009. She has been serving her sentence at the Kachanivska correctional facility in Kharkiv since late December 2011.

Tymoshenko's appeal was filed at the ECHR in August 2011. The ex-premier alleges that her detention was politically motivated; that there has been no judicial review of the lawfulness of her detention in Kyiv detention center; that her detention conditions were improper, with no medical care provided for her numerous health problems; and, that she was under round-the-clock surveillance in Kharkiv hospital.

The ECHR held a public hearing of this appeal on August 28, 2012.

After the Higher Specialized Court upheld the seven-year sentence for Tymoshenko in the case on the abuse of office in signing a gas supply contract with Russia in 2009, the ex-premier lodged another appeal with the European Court about the politically motivated violation of her right to a fair trial. The ECHR launched proceedings into this case in October 2012.