DPA/Reuters/Kiev
A circus-like atmosphere forced a top Ukrainian court hearing an appeal by ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko against her conviction on abuse of office charges to go into recess for more than an hour yesterday.
Supporters of former Ukrainian prime minister Tymoshenko chant slogans during a protest in front of Kiev’s High Court yesterday
Judges in the High Specialised Court, Ukraine’s top appeals court, recessed proceedings after arguments erupted between defence and prosecution lawyers.
Chief judge Stanislav Mishchenko also warned the court that he would clear it of “disrespectful” persons – and possibly hold them in contempt – after Tymoshenko supporters, including members of parliament, laughed and hooted during a speech by prosecuting attorney Oksana Drogbitska.
They also yelled at the judges.
The leader of Ukraine’s opposition, Tymoshenko was sentenced in October to seven years in prison for her role in a natural gas deal signed with Russia in 2009, while she was in office.
Prosecutors argued that Tymoshenko’s guilt had been clearly established at her trial last year.
The government of President Viktor Yanukovych says the agreement was reckless and saddled the former Soviet republic with an enormous price for strategic supplies of gas which is now taking a toll on the heavily-stressed economy.
Tymoshenko, who is receiving treatment for back trouble in a state-run clinic in the city of Kharkiv and was not present at the appeal hearing, denies betraying the national interest.
She says she is the victim of a vendetta by Yanukovych, who narrowly beat her for the presidency in February 2010.
Her prosecution, which has damaged Ukraine’s relations with the European Union and the United States, will be a major issue in legislative elections on October 28 when Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions will seek to keep its control of parliament.
When the appeal hearing resumed yesterday, state prosecutor Oksana Drogbitska said Tymoshenko was guilty of a crime which had had serious consequences.
“During the investigation ... the intentional nature of her actions had been established. Everything points to the fact that the actions of Tymoshenko were criminal,” she said. “The (gas) contract continues to inflict massive damage on Ukraine.”
Drogbitska said Tymoshenko had heaped personal abuse on the judge at her trial last year and she accused defence lawyers of trying to turn the appeal hearing into a “talk show”.
Tymoshenko’s lawyers last week argued in court that negotiating the gas agreement with Russia had been a political act which did not amount to criminal action.
Western governments have called for Tymoshenko’s release.
But, with the October election on the horizon, the Yanukovych leadership has shown no signs of freeing Tymoshenko and authorities are instead piling up other charges against her.
In a separate trial, which has been adjourned several times because of her back trouble, she is accused of embezzlement and tax evasion going back to alleged offences when she was in business in the 1990s.
Tymoshenko’s defence counsel, Serhiy Vlasenko, told reporters he expected the judges to announce their findings between September 11 and 13.
The political opposition prefers a quick clear-cut decision on Tymoshenko’s appeal well before the election in order to take it to the European Court of Human Rights, if need be.
Arseniy Yatseniuk, who has taken over at the helm of the united opposition in the absence of Tymoshenko, said that he feared a decision would be slow in coming.
“The process is complicated for us because we need to pass on the papers (from the appeal) to a fair court, the European Court of Human Rights. We know that there is a fair court in Europe,” Yatseniuk told reporters outside the Kiev court.
Tymoshenko was a leader of the 2004 “Orange Revolution” protests that derailed Yanukovych’s first bid for the presidency, but failed to produce a strong unified government.
Since Yanukovych defeated her in the election, some of her opposition allies have also faced corruption-related charges.
