Ukraine ex-PM faces new charge
Source: Agencies |
October 14, 2011, Friday
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Ukraine's state security service yesterday directly linked jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to another criminal probe, alleging her involvement in running up a US$405 million debt to Russia on behalf of the Ukrainian state.
The charge, which relates to events 15 years ago, was first aired last June when the security service, the SBU, linked the case to the affairs of Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, an energy company the imprisoned politician once ran.
But in a new twist yesterday, only two days after she was jailed for seven years for abuse-of-office, the SBU named her and another former prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko in connection with the case.
"The main investigative department of the SBU has opened a criminal case in respect of citizens Tymoshenko and Lazarenko," the department's head, Ivan Derevyanko, said.
Lazarenko, who was prime minister for just over a year from mid-1996, is currently serving a prison sentence in the United States for money laundering and other offences.
Derevyanko claimed Tymoshenko "conspired" with Lazarenko to run up a debt of US$405 million to Russia's Defence Ministry from the Ukrainian state budget.
She was formally charged with the offence in her police detention cell on Wednesday, he said.
Tymoshenko ran Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, which once imported Russian gas for resale in Ukraine, in 1995-96 long before she became prime minister. It was that link which earned her the nickname "gas princess."
The charge, which relates to events 15 years ago, was first aired last June when the security service, the SBU, linked the case to the affairs of Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, an energy company the imprisoned politician once ran.
But in a new twist yesterday, only two days after she was jailed for seven years for abuse-of-office, the SBU named her and another former prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko in connection with the case.
"The main investigative department of the SBU has opened a criminal case in respect of citizens Tymoshenko and Lazarenko," the department's head, Ivan Derevyanko, said.
Lazarenko, who was prime minister for just over a year from mid-1996, is currently serving a prison sentence in the United States for money laundering and other offences.
Derevyanko claimed Tymoshenko "conspired" with Lazarenko to run up a debt of US$405 million to Russia's Defence Ministry from the Ukrainian state budget.
She was formally charged with the offence in her police detention cell on Wednesday, he said.
Tymoshenko ran Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, which once imported Russian gas for resale in Ukraine, in 1995-96 long before she became prime minister. It was that link which earned her the nickname "gas princess."
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