KIEV, Sept. 17 – Parliament delayed for a week debate over amendments to the criminal law that could potentially lead to the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko amid reported lack of support from lawmakers.

Volodymyr Lytvyn, the speaker of Parliament, said the amendments had been reviewed on Monday by leaders of groups at a special conciliatory meeting, and it was decided to put them on hold.

The amendments, which were supposed to be debated on Wednesday, will require more consultations between the groups to secure broader support among lawmakers, he said.

“Today I supported the proposal to postpone the debate over the amendments because there will be no positive decision,” Lytvyn said.

The development suggests that pro-government groups, controlled by President Viktor Yanukovych, have not yet finally decided whether to support the amendments.

This come as opposition groups, including the group led by Tymoshenko, have been seeking a speedy debate and the approval of the amendments.

“The amendments must not only be urgently debated, but must also not be rejected,” Mykola Martynenko, the head of Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense group and a Tymoshenko ally, said.

If lawmakers fail to support the amendments, Parliament can only return back to the issue in six months, which makes it extremely important to secure the broad support for it now.

“If there is not sufficient support for them, it must be said,” Martynenko said.

Yanukovych is under mounting pressure from European leaders to release Tymoshenko as a way for opening door for Ukraine to sign a free trade and political association agreements later this year.

The release of Tymoshenko via the approval of the amendments in Parliament is one of possible options currently discussed between Yanukovych and the European leaders, Ukrayinska Pravda reported Monday citing people familiar with the situation.

The plan would apparently allow Yanukovych to “save face” and to lift a major obstacle on the way for Ukraine to signing the free trade and political association agreements later this year.

Hanna Herman, an advisor to the president, said Monday the arrest of Tymoshenko on August 5 was a move that had caused a “great harm” to Yanukovych.

“Should Yanukovych be solving this case, he wouldn’t have done such a great harm to himself,” Herman said in an interview with ICTV.

“If I knew who did it. If I knew who made this decision, I would strangle this person to death with my own hands,” Herman said.

“I believe and I know that the justice will be serviced in respect to Tymoshenko,” Herman said. “If she is guilty, she would have to be brought to account. If she is not guilty, we all would have to apologize.”

The plan of Tymoshenko’s release was recently discussed at a three-hour meeting between Yanukovych and Alexander Kwasniewski, a former Polish president who had been dispatched to Ukraine to try to solve the problem.

German Chancelor Angela Merkel called Yanukovych on Friday to express her concern over the Tymoshenko case.

This comes a week after EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have sent a letter to Yanukovych, apparently expressing similar concerns.

Andriy Portnov, a deputy chief of staff at the Yanukovych administration who is in charge of the legal reform, said Yanukovych had recently expressed concerns with the high number of people that are kept in pre-trial detention facilities.

Some 19,000 people, including Tymoshenko, are kept in such facilities, of which 1,300 people area awaiting the trial for more tan 1.5 years.

Yanukovych instructed Portnov to take “immediate measures” to make sure that constitutional rights of those in custody not be violated.

Tymoshenko was arrested on August 5 for contempt of court. She is on trial for forcing Naftogaz Ukrayiny to sign a controversial 10-year gas agreement with Russia in January 2009 without securing an approval of the government.

Tymoshenko said the charges were politically motivated and aimed at destroying the largest opposition party in Ukraine.

A week ago, Pecherskiy district court judge Rodion Kireyev announced an adjournment of the Tymoshenko case until September 27 "to guarantee the rights of the defense and provide extra time." (tl/ez)