The FINANCIAL -- The Ukrainian government said in remarks published Friday it will not intervene in the
case of imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, despite EU
criticism of Ukraine 's judicial system.
"We will do nothing," Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko told the Austrian daily Die Presse when asked about European Union demands for justice for Tymoshenko in return for its granting an association accord with Kiev .
"Our judiciary must do its work and achieve results. It's not possible for our friends to give us advice on what we should do with such and such because they think it is nice, without their knowing what really happened," he said.
"We have been for too long under MOSCOW 's domination, where we were told what we should do," Gryshchenko was quoted as saying.
Faced with EU hesitations, Kiev stressed Wednesday its interest in holding an EU-Ukraine summit planned for September.
Kiev would like to seal an association accord which has an ambitious commercial component, one that the Europeans have frozen to press Ukraine to take concrete steps to remedy cases of selective justice, which they insist former prime minister Tymoshenko's is, as EUbusiness reported.
"Unfortunately, our partners in negotiations need some time to seize the whole dimension of the case," the foreign minister was quoted as saying.
The 51-year-old Tymoshenko was jailed for seven years in October on abuse of power charges that she claimed were a part of a vendetta by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych against her and her former government team.
She cannot participate in legislative elections planned for October 28.
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