Tymoshenko Trial Delayed as Ex-Premier Questions Ukraine Justice
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s abuse-of-power trial was adjourned for two days after the politician complained that her lawyer was out of the country gathering evidence for her defense.
Tymoshenko had asked the Central Kiev District Court for a one week delay because a second attorney, Mykola Tytarenko, didn’t have the right to read court documents in the case until June 30 and could not provide an adequate defense today. Judge Rodion Kireyev said a two-day delay would give Tytarenko adequate time to prepare.
“Tytarenko will have to read 4,000 pages tomorrow,” Tymoshenko told journalists after today’s hearing. “Is this justice?”
Prosecutors opened a criminal case against Tymoshenko in April, alleging that her government agreed to pay too much to buy Russian natural gas in 2009, resulting in 1.5 billion hryvnia ($188 million) of damage to Ukraine. The former premier accused President Viktor Yanukovych of engineering the case to silence opposition before next year’s parliamentary elections.
Tymoshenko has been at odds with Yanukovych since 2004, when she helped lead the Orange Revolution that overturned his victory in presidential elections. She was ordered not to leave Ukraine in December after a separate investigation into the sale of emissions permits to Japan in 2009.
To contact the reporter on this story: Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net
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