KIEV: Ukraine's attorney general said Friday all 234 protesters who were arrested in anti-government unrest rocking the country had been released as demanded by the opposition but charges against them remained.
"234 people were arrested between December 26 and February 2. None of them are in custody any more," said Viktor Pshonka, adding that charges against them would be dropped if buildings currently occupied by demonstrators were evacuated.
President Viktor Yanukovych, who for more than two months has faced relentless protests demanding he resign, signed a law early February agreeing to amnesty all detainees.
But he set one condition that protesters evacuate all public buildings they are occupying, such as Kiev city hall next to Independence Square, where demonstrators are camping out in what has become a barricaded anti-government enclave.
"If the conditions of the (amnesty) law are met all charges against them will be abandoned over one month" from February 18, Pshonka said.
The protests erupted in November after Yanukovych ditched a key EU trade pact in favour of closer ties with Russia, angering pro-EU parts of the population.
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