Looks like the parliament voted to free Yulia.
Ukraine Leader Agrees to Deal Amid Move to Free Archrival
By
ANDREW E. KRAMER and
ANDREW HIGGINSFEB. 21, 2014
Arguments broke out in the Ukrainian Parliament on Friday. Maks Levin/Reuters
In a further sign of the president’s diminished influence, Parliament voted to allow the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been imprisoned for more than two years. In a 310-to-54 vote that is veto-proof, lawmakers decriminalized the actions for which she was incarcerated.
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Kiev: Triage in Crisis
In the Ukrainian capital, triage centers have sprung up around Independence Square, where dozens of people have died in the fighting.
It was not immediately clear when Ms. Tymoshenko might be released from a penitentiary in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she has been serving her sentence since August 2011. But she is still considered one of Mr. Yanukovych’s most potent adversaries. Many of her supporters blame Mr. Yanukovych for ordering her imprisonment.
The English-language website of The
Kyiv Post quoted a lawyer for Ms. Tymoshenko, Serhiy Vlasenko, as saying prosecutors must now file a petition to the court to release her, and the entire process could take up to two weeks. Ms. Tymoshenko also would be able to run for office, since she would have no criminal record.
Parliament also approved a pivotal point in the political settlement by taking the first step toward reverting to a previous version of Ukraine’s Constitution, which significantly weakens the power of the president. With support from the pro-government party, the Party of Regions, that was required to vote with a constitutional majority, lawmakers annulled amendments to the Constitution adopted after 2008, before Mr. Yanukovych became president. The change was adopted with 386 votes, well above the 300 needed.
Lawmakers also passed an unconditional and blanket amnesty for all participants in the antigovernment protests absolving those in custody or under investigation now and prohibiting future prosecutions of protesters. They also voted to dismiss the minister of the interior, a reviled figure among protesters.
In a further action, the lawmakers voted to provide financial assistance to the hundreds of protesters wounded over the past several days, and to the families of those killed.
The series of votes, which amounted to a sweeping concession by pro-government lawmakers, came hours after word of the political deal reached between Mr. Yanukovych and the main opposition leaders.
Independence Square in Kiev
February 20, 2014
April 22, 2009
2009 Photo - Agence France-Presse; 2014 Photo - Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images
Outside the Parliament building, the police pulled back from the sandbagged parapets for shooting down a cobblestoned street to the protester barricades 500 yards away. The police abandoned military trucks and crowd-control vehicles on the street, which some protesters were hot-wiring and driving away.
Dozens of opposition street fighters walked up to the unguarded Parliament building and milled about. As the lawmakers inside were voting, one man wearing a motorcycle helmet and carrying an ax sat on a curb outside.
“The main goal today is to lower tensions and prevent bloodshed,” Artyum Ilyuk, a member of the pro-government Party of Regions, said in an interview explaining his willingness to vote on the compromises. “I will vote for whatever will stop the bloodshed.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/22/world/europe/ukraine.html?emc=edit_na_20140221&_r=1
