Yulia Tymoshenko jailed for 7 years, says Ukraine trial ‘like Stalin’s Soviet Union’

 

A Ukrainian court has sentenced former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office because of a natural gas deal she signed with Russia when she was in office, enraging the West and jeopardizing Kiev’s hopes of an EU membership.

 

A Ukrainian court has sentenced former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office because of a natural gas deal she signed with Russia when she was in office, enraging the West and jeopardizing Kiev’s hopes of an EU membership.

The prosecution of  Tymoshenko, the opposition leader who was the driving force behind the 2004 Orange Revolution that brought a pro-Western government to power, has become a litmus test for her archrival, President Viktor Yanukovych. Since he defeated her in a close election in 2010, he has pursued closer ties with Europe at the same time as critics accuse him of increasingly adopting the authoritarian tactics of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Comparing the verdict to the show trials of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, she said, “Don’t give up. Fight, and we will overcome the authoritarian regime with our strength. I am with you. They will not stop me.” Her lawyers vowed to appeal, first in Ukraine and then to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, denounced the verdict, saying it confirms fears “that justice is being applied selectively in politically motivated prosecutions of the leaders of the opposition.” She warned that it risked “profound implications” for Ukraine’s hopes of closer ties with the EU, in particular a free-trade and partnership agreement now under negotiation.

Conceding that Tymoshenko’s pro-Western stance had made her “a political opponent,” Putin said in televised comments during a visit to China,

[quote]I don’t really understand what they gave her the seven years for.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry also cited allegations the trial was politically motivated, complaining of an “obvious anti-Russian subtext in the whole story.”[/quote]

Judge Rodion Kireyev found Tymoshenko guilty of exceeding her authority while prime minister in 2009 by making the state energy company sign a 10-year gas import deal with Russia that was overly advantageous to Moscow.

“The court rules that Y.V. Tymoshenko intentionally used her powers to criminal ends,” Kireyev said in his judgement. “The court finds her guilty and sentences her to seven years in prison.”

Kireyev said Tymoshenko sustained a loss to state gas firm Naftogaz of 1.5 billion hryvnia (US$188 million) by agreeing the 10-year contract and ordered her to pay back the money in full herself.

The verdict means the 50-year-old Tymoshenko will not be able to run in a parliamentary election next year or a presidential poll in 2015.