Police vow not to remove pro-Tymoshenko tent camp on no-agitation pre-election day

09:52, 15.10.2012 1 min read

A current tent camp set up on Kyiv's central street by supporters of jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will not be removed by police on October 27, the pre-election day when all election campaigning is banned, Deputy Interior Minister Viktor Ratushniak said on October 12.

"The police won't take any measures about the tent camp, not do they have a right to do so anyway, because, even if anything does get done there, it can only be done by municipal services or the enforcement service," Ratushniak told a news conference in Kyiv.

Ukraine is due to hold parliamentary elections on October 28.

The tent camp was set up in front of the building of the Pechersky District Court on Khreschatyk Street in June 2011 when the court put Tymoshenko on trial. The ex-prime minister was charged with abusing her authority by arranging a controversial natural gas deal with Russia in 2009.

On October 11, 2011, she was sentenced to seven years in prison.