KIEV, March 3 (RAPSI) – In accordance with a new law signed into force by Ukraine’s acting president Aleksandr Turchinov, recently freed ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko may run for president.

The law extends an amnesty to individuals that were convicted between February 1, 2012 and March 1 2014, and whose cases the European Court of Human Rights held violated the European Convention of Human Rights’ (Convention) article on the limitation on the use of restrictions and rights. Specifically, the amnesty extends to former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former interior minister Yuri Lutsenko.

On February 22, the Verkhovna Rada impeached Viktor Yanukovich and amended the constitution.

The presidential powers were assigned to the parliament speaker Turchinov. The parliament scheduled presidential election for May 25. Also last Thursday, the Verkhovna Rada approved a so-called government of popular trust.

At a news conference in Rostov-on-Don, Yanukovich said that he was forced to leave Ukraine under a threat to his life but he remains the legitimate president of the country.

Tymoshenko has been serving a seven-year sentence in a penal colony in the city of Kharkov for abuse of power based on a gas deal she signed with Russia in 2009. Since May 2012, she has been undergoing treatment. Tymoshenko was also charged with financial fraud, which is alleged to have taken place when she was head of United Energy Systems of Ukraine in the 1990s. The case was postponed for over a year, due to her poor health.