[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights [official website] ruled [judgment; press release, PDF] Tuesday that Ukraine violated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) [text, PDF] by jailing former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko [official website; JURIST news archive] for politically-motivated reasons. The court ruled that Tymoskenko’s indefinite pre-trial detention was arbitrary and that it was not properly reviewed. The government also breached the ECHR by not providing Tymoshenko with an opportunity to seek compensation for a deprivation of liberty.

In February Tymoshenko was fined USD $2,000 for contempt [JURIST report] of court after a hearing in Kiev. In January the state began investigating [JURIST report] her lawyer for several criminal charges. Tymoshenko has already been sentenced to seven years in prison on corruption charges and is currently awaiting trial on charges of tax evasion [JURIST reports]. In September the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee [official website] unanimously passed [JURIST report] a resolution calling for Ukraine to release Tymoshenko from prison. Last July, the ECHR ruled unanimously [JURIST report] that the arrest and detention of former interior minister and Tymoshenko ally Lutsenko violated the ECHR.