Cox-Kwasniewski mission asks Ukrainian president to pardon Lutsenko

12:53, 27.02.2013 1 min read

The special envoys of the European Parliament monitoring mission to Ukraine, former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and former president of the European Parliament Pat Cox, have asked Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych to pardon former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko.

"Cox and I have appealed to President Yanukovych asking him to pardon Lutsenko," Kwasniewski said at the 9th investment conference of Dragon Capital company in Kyiv on Wednesday.

They explained their proposal by the fact that the former minister has already served half of his term and his charges were not very serious.

Kwasniewski also said that in March the European Parliament expected their mission to report on the progress of their monitoring of the trials of Lutsenko and Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. If there is no progress, then the mission may be closed.

"These two cases [of Lutsenko and Tymoshenko] can be settled, and it's time to do this," he said.