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Czechs grant ex-economy minister asylum
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Jan. 13 – Bohdan Danylyshyn, the economy minister in the government of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, was granted asylum by the Czech Republic, effectively shielding him from any political persecution in Ukraine.

The granting of the asylum appears to have shocked Ukraine’s authorities.

It comes on the same day as the Freedom House, an independent watchdog organization that supports the expansion of freedom around the world, issued its Freedom of the World 2011 report, in which it had moved Ukraine from the list of Free to the list of Partially Free.

The developments underscore a rapid deterioration of democracy and freedoms in Ukraine since February 2010, when Viktor Yanukovych won the presidency. He used the post to consolidate his power by changing the constitution, and also by launching a number of criminal cases against his opponents, including Tymoshenko and Danylyshyn.

The granting of asylum may have far reaching political consequences, and may delay Ukraine’s talks over free trade and political association agreement with the European Union.

Marina Makhitkova, the lawyer representing Danylyshyn, told Redio Liberty on Thursday that the asylum had been granted by the Czech Republic’s Interior Ministry.

Danylyshyn becomes the first Ukrainian opposition figure who has asked – and received – the asylum since the presidency of Leonid Kuchma, an authoritarian leader of Ukraine who was forced to step down in late 2004.

“Viktor Yanukovych catches up with the experience of Leonid Kuchma ahead of schedule,” Serhiy Leshchenko, a reporter for Ukrayinska Pravda, said. “The current Ukrainian authorities are gradually getting the definition of the regime.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry was puzzled by the report that Danylyshyn had been granted the asylum.

“The very possibility of this is triggering some serious surprise,” Oleh Boloshyn, a spokesman for the ministry, told Interfax-Ukraine. “It is unclear how can they talk about political persecution of a person who had never been involved in political activity.”

Danylyshyn was arrested in the Czech Republic at the request of the Ukrainian authorities who had accused him of abusing power while on the post of the minister.

The authorities said Danylyshyn had selected a contractor without competitive bids to build 450 million hryvnias worth parking at Boryspil airport.

He is also accused of authorizing the purchase of 52 million hryvnias worth of gasoline from Anchar Group gasoline trader for the defense ministry.

Danylyshyn denied all charges and said they were politically motivated.

More than a dozen of criminal investigations opened against opposition figures were billed by the Yanukovych administration as the campaign to fight corruption.

But many said it was an attack on the opposition groups to win political preferences.

“The world perfectly understands that it’s not the fight against corruption, but rather settling political accounts,” Oleh Rybachuk, a former deputy prime minister, said. “It is naïve for the Ukrainian authorities to insist that this is not so.”

Freedom House, in its report released on Thursday, singled out Ukraine and Mexico for dropping out of the list of Free countries a joining the list of Partially Free last year.

“The most notable changes occurred in Mexico and Ukraine,” the report said, explaining Mexico’s poor rating by ongoing drug wars in various states.

A Free country is one where there is open political competition, a climate of respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life, and independent media.

A Partly Free country is one in which there is limited respect for political rights and civil liberties. Partly Free states frequently suffer from an environment of corruption, weak rule of law, ethnic and religious strife, and a political landscape in which a single party enjoys dominance despite a certain degree of pluralism.

A Not Free country is one where basic political rights are absent, and basic civil liberties are widely and systematically denied.

"The world's most powerful authoritarian regimes acted with increased brazenness in 2010," the report said.

The report's survey of 194 countries and 14 territories around the world found that China, Egypt, Iran, Russia and Venezuela continued to increase repressive measures with little significant resistance from democracies.

The number of electoral democracies dropped to 115, the lowest level since 1995, after reaching a high of 123 in 2005.

"Authoritarian regimes will have a much freer hand to silence their domestic critics if there is no resistance from the outside world," said Arch Puddington, director of research at Freedom House in a statement accompanying the annual report on the levels of freedom in countries. (tl/ez)




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