Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said that the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the political motivation of her arrest effectively declared her a political prisoner.

"By confirming that Article 18 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was violated the European Court of Human Rights has effectively declared me a political prisoner. Unfortunately, Ukraine has deep traditions of political persecution," reads a statement by the ex-premier posted on her official Web site on Tuesday.

Tymoshenko also said that the political motivation of her arrest proves that all other criminal cases against her, statements of prosecutors and the prosecution were "illegal, false and unfair."

Tymoshenko said she did not know how Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych would react to the ECHR's ruling. She said Yanukovych was the one who initiated her arrest.

"I don't know what Viktor Yanukovych will do after this ruling. He will most likely ignore it," reads the statement.

Tymoshenko also expressed hope that her release from prison was a matter of time.

"Today I can feel the whole happiness of a person that received political and legal rehabilitation," she said.

The ex-premier also stressed that by a formal legal tradition her case is called "Tymoshenko versus Ukraine," but, according to her, such a name is not correct. She noted that she appealed against those "who are torturing my Ukraine today, humiliating it," and not against Ukraine as the state.

As reported, on April 30, 2013, the 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.

Tymoshenko was arrested during a hearing of the gas case on August 5, 2011.

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.