KIEV, April 7 - President Viktor Yanukovych, under pressure from the European Union and the United States, on Sunday pardoned Yuriy Lutsenko, Ukraine’s second-most-prominent political prisoner, citing the policy of “decriminalization” and “humanization” of legislation.

The move was welcomed by European politicians as an “important step,” increasing chances that Ukraine and the EU may sign free trade and political association agreement in November.

Lutsenko, a former interior minister in the government of then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, was arrested in December 2010 on charges that he had abused his office. The arrest, and subsequent four-year prison term, raised concerns in the EU and the US that Ukraine’s democracy was at risk.

Those concerns further increased after the arrest of Tymoshenko, Yanukovych’s biggest rival, in August 2011. Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s most prominent prisoner, was jailed to seven years in October 2011.

Lutsenko, 48, who was held at a jail 230 km north of Kiev, only last week saw his appeal against conviction rejected by a high court.

In a live telephone message played by loudspeaker to an opposition meeting in Kiev on Sunday shortly after his release, Lutsenko urged opposition supporters to pursue public protests.

"Policy is not made by the presidential administration, nor by parliament. It is made out there on the streets. We triumphed there before and we will triumph there again," he declared, referring to the 2004 "Orange Revolution" protests which doomed Yanukovych's first run for the presidency.

The US and the EU say prosecutions of Tymoshenko and former members of her government are politically motivated.

The EU has made their release a condition for signing deals on trade and political association with Kiev in November, and has said those agreements could be shelved for years unless progress is made on justice and other issues by next month.

In a message on Twitter, Stefan Fuele, the EU's enlargement commissioner and pointman on Eastern Europe, welcomed Yanukovych's pardoning of the ex-ministers as a "first but important step to deal with selective justice.”

Yanukovych, at a summit with EU leaders late February, was given three months to show progress in many areas of policies, including the release of political prisoners, for the country to be able to sign the free trade and political association agreement in November.

Meanwhile, Yanukovych showed no signs of clemency for Tymoshenko, who is serving a seven-year jail sentence also for abuse of office. The pardons for Lutsenko and Heorhiy Filipchuk, a former environment and natural resources minister, are likely now to swing the focus onto her fate.

But Ukrainian authorities have shown little sign of relenting in her case. Indeed, apart from the charge for which she is currently in prison, she is also being prosecuted for alleged embezzlement and tax evasion.

Separately, pre-trial hearings are being conducted in a third case against her over allegations she ordered a contract killing of a local businessman and parliament deputy in 1996 - a charge which carries a sentence of life imprisonment.

Tymoshenko has denied all charges against her.

World heavyweight boxer Vitaly Klitschko, an opposition leader, declared to about six thousand opposition supporters massed in central Kiev on Sunday that securing Tymoshenko's release was a priority for the united opposition.

"No country can call itself democratic while there are political prisoners. We will fight for Yulia Tymoshenko and others who are locked up to be freed," he said, Reuters reported.

"This (the pardon) is one of the key decisions for securing the signing of agreements with the EU in November," said analyst Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta think-tank.

"Everyone knows that they will not free Tymoshenko, so the decision was taken to grant a pardon to Lutsenko," he said. (tl/rt/ez)