By Andrew Warshaw
May 7 – Spain has added its name to a growing list of European Governments which have threatened a boycott of this summer’s UEFA European Championship in protest at Ukraine’s human rights record.
Spain is the defending champion and among the favourites to win the tournament, but Foreign Minister José Manuel Garcia-Margallo (pictured below) warned the country’s politicians would refuse travel unless Ukraine resolved the case of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (pictured top, in poster).
“If Spain gets through to the final, there will be no member of the Government present while the case of Yulia Tymoshenko is unresolved,” Garcia-Margallo said in an interview published yesterday.
Tymoshenko, the main rival of President Viktor Yanukovych, was sentenced to seven years last October for abuse of office after a trial the West has insisted was politically motivated.
She is in prison in the city of Kharkiv, one of the Euro 2012 venues, and is on hunger strike in protest at what she has claimed was an assault by prison guards, an allegation denied by the prison administration.
None of the 16 finalists has, so far, threatened to stay away but the political situation in Ukraine is causing widespread concern, with the joint hosts under increasing scrutiny by both UEFA, European football’s governing body, and the international community.
Last week Amnesty International warned that fans travelling to Ukraine faced a police force that was “out of control”.
Two days earlier a series of explosions rocked the city of Dnipropetrovsk (pictured below) although UEFA insisted it had received “clear assurances” that the country was safe.
Nevertheless the organisation made a point of adding that it had alerted Ukraine “about the concerns raised” over security issues.
Austria has already announced that no member of its Government will be attending games in Ukraine in a gesture of solidarity with Tymoshenko; a similar move is reportedly being considered by Germany, whose team is also one of favourites.
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