KIEV, December 21 - RAPSI. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said he does not oppose releasing former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was sentenced in October to seven years in prison for abuse of power in signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009.

"I do not oppose Tymoshenko being legally released," he said during a news conference.

Meanwhile, Yanukovych reiterated that he has no power to interfere with the judicial system under the Ukrainian Constitution.

Yanukovych has stressed that Tymoshenko can be released if parliament decides to depenalize the offenses for which she was convicted.

A Kiev district court sentenced Tymoshenko in October to seven years in prison for abuse of power in signing gas contracts between Ukraine's Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom in 2009. Tymoshenko appealed the sentence. The court sanctioned her second arrest on December 8 in connection to her activities as the head of United Energy Systems of Ukraine in the 1990s. Under the new case, she stands indicted for tax evasion, non-disclosure of currency proceeds and attempted embezzlement of millions of U.S. dollars in budget funds.