Reuters/Kiev
A new trial of former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, already serving a seven-year prison term on abuse-of-office charges, is set to open in her absence this week after the opposition leader refused to attend it citing poor health.
The jailing last October of Tymoshenko, the fiercest foe of President Viktor Yanukovych, has soured Ukraine’s ties with the European Union and the US, which saw the case as an example of “selective justice”.
Despite Western pressure for her release, Ukrainian prosecutors have charged her with tax evasion and are also investigating what they say is her possible involvement in the 1996 contract killing of an influential businessman and parliament deputy.
Preliminary hearings will start on April 19 in Tymoshenko’s trial on tax evasion and attempted theft charges related to her activities as the head of a major gas trading company in the 1990s.
In an official statement published by the state prison service yesterday, Tymoshenko, who had denied any wrongdoing, refused to attend the opening hearing.
“...I am asking (the court) to hold the preliminary hearing in my absence due to my poor health,” Tymoshenko said.
Tymoshenko, 51, has been suffering from back pains for months, her family and lawyers say.
The authorities have proposed to move her to a state hospital in the city of Kharkiv where her prison is located but Tymoshenko has sought the advice of a group of German doctors who are now in Ukraine to inspect the proposed facility.
Tymoshenko was convicted in October of abusing her power as prime minister in forcing through a 2009 gas deal with Russia which, Yanukovych’s government says, ran against national interests and made vital imports exorbitantly expensive.
She dismissed the verdict as part of Yanukovych’s personal vendetta.