Ukrainian hearing in ex-PM's prison cell
Source: Agencies |
December 9, 2011, Friday
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A UKRAINIAN court held a bizarre hearing at the prison cell bedside of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko yesterday as authorities pressed ahead with more legal action against her, her lawyers said.
State prosecutors were formally asking for the "re-arrest" of Tymoshenko, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in October for abuse of office, on additional charges of tax evasion and theft of government funds.
Her defense lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, said the judge, state prosecutor and legal counsel crowded into Tymoshenko's 22-square meter cell in Kiev's Lukyanivska detention center with the former prime minister, who has back problems, lying in bed.
Chairs were brought in for the judge and the state prosecutor. "The judge, Andriy Trubnikov, was there in his robes," Vlasenko said.
"What is going on now with Tymoshenko looks absurd. It's impossible to explain what is going on now from the point of view of common sense," said political commentator Vladimir Fesenko.
Tymoshenko, 51, who was a leading light in the "Orange Revolution" protests in 2004 that overturned the old political order in the ex-Soviet republic, says she is the victim of a vendetta by her political foe, President Viktor Yanukovich.
The European Union also says her trial was politically motivated. The fresh moves mean Yanukovich is unwillingness to heed Western calls to free her, and they threaten the success of an EU-Ukraine summit in Kiev on December 19. Deals on political association and creation of a free-trade zone, mapping out a new strategic relationship between the bloc and Ukraine, are due to be initialled then.
A second arrest warrant would mean Tymoshenko would stay in jail, where she has been since August, even if an appeals court overturned the October verdict.
State prosecutors were formally asking for the "re-arrest" of Tymoshenko, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in October for abuse of office, on additional charges of tax evasion and theft of government funds.
Her defense lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, said the judge, state prosecutor and legal counsel crowded into Tymoshenko's 22-square meter cell in Kiev's Lukyanivska detention center with the former prime minister, who has back problems, lying in bed.
Chairs were brought in for the judge and the state prosecutor. "The judge, Andriy Trubnikov, was there in his robes," Vlasenko said.
"What is going on now with Tymoshenko looks absurd. It's impossible to explain what is going on now from the point of view of common sense," said political commentator Vladimir Fesenko.
Tymoshenko, 51, who was a leading light in the "Orange Revolution" protests in 2004 that overturned the old political order in the ex-Soviet republic, says she is the victim of a vendetta by her political foe, President Viktor Yanukovich.
The European Union also says her trial was politically motivated. The fresh moves mean Yanukovich is unwillingness to heed Western calls to free her, and they threaten the success of an EU-Ukraine summit in Kiev on December 19. Deals on political association and creation of a free-trade zone, mapping out a new strategic relationship between the bloc and Ukraine, are due to be initialled then.
A second arrest warrant would mean Tymoshenko would stay in jail, where she has been since August, even if an appeals court overturned the October verdict.
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