Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has pardoned several convicts, among them former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and former Environmental Protection Minister Heorhiy Filipchuk.

A decree to this end was signed on April 7 and posted on the presidential website.

Decree No. 197/2013 states that the president of Ukraine made the pardon decision "having considered a motion for pardoning persons sentenced by the courts of Ukraine, proposals of the Commission for Pardoning and taking into account the gravity of their offenses, the actually served term, the personalities of the convicts, the state of their health, their conduct and attitude to work before their offenses and after conviction, the compensation of damage, the opinion of the administrations of penitentiary facilities, government bodies and local self-governments about the usefulness of the pardoning and also other circumstances."

The decree exempts from further punishment Serhiy Vikulin, Iryna Voskanian, Yuriy Lutsenko, Dmytro Mohiliovtsev, Oleksandr Riasenets and Heorhiy Filipchuk.

It came into force as of the day of signing.