British Ministers Boycott Euro 2012 in Ukraine over Political Prisoner
The UK Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson will boycott the upcoming Euro 2012 football tournament due to be held in Ukraine in protest over the ongoing unlawful detention of political prisoner Yulia Tymoshenko.
The political stand-off is the latest embarrassment for a country whose co-hosting of Uefa’s premier tournament has been dogged with controversy.
Tymoshenko began a seven-year prison sentence last September in what many key European politicians have described as a politically motivated move driven by the president, Viktor Yanukovych.
A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: “The Government is keeping the situation under review in consultation with European Union partners.”
If Robertson chooses not to head to Ukraine to watch England, whose three Group D matches are being held in Donetsk and Kiev, he will be joining the Dutch royal family, the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, and Austrian government officials in the stay-away protest.
Tymoshenko has allegedly been denied appropriate medical assistance for the back pain she is suffering, which may be related to a slipped disc. The developments came as Amnesty International last night warned of “widespread police criminality” in Ukraine.
Amnesty has highlighted what it described as “numerous cases in Euro 2012 host cities in which police have tortured people in an attempt to extort money, extract a confession, or simply because of the victims’ sexuality or ethnic origin”.
Given that Russia is hosting the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, it will be interesting to see if other European ministers boycott over the treatment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, another Amnesty International recognized prisoner of conscience.
