Yulia Tymoshenko, a popular figure from Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution, is found guilty of exceeding her powers when she signed a gas deal with Russia in 2009 and is sentenced to seven years in prison.
- Yulia Tymoshenko interrupted the judge during the reading of the verdict, calling on Ukrainians to unite against what she labeled repressions reminiscent of the Stalinist era. (Efrem Lukatsky / Associated Press / October 11, 2011) – Ukraine ex-prime minister convicted of abuse of power
Reporting from Moscow— Ukraine’s former prime minister and leading opposition figure was found guilty of abuse of power and sentenced to seven years in prison Tuesday in a verdict that was widely expected but still riled her supporters.
Yulia Tymoshenko, who more than once during her trial accused the judge of acting on behalf of her rival, President Victor Yanukovich, was convicted of exceeding her powers by signing a gas deal with Russia in January 2009 that the judge said had cost the government gas company about $200 million in damages.
“Taking into account … the high social danger of the crime that Tymoshenko committed, her personality and the lack of any kind of remorse the court doesn’t find any ground for a imposing a softer punishment,” said Judge Rodion Kireyev, who also ruled that the 51-year-old former prime minister should compensate Naftagas Ukraine, the state-owned gas company, for the full cost of its losses.
Tymoshenko will not be able to hold any government position for three years after her release, the judge ruled.
Tymoshenko, who defiantly sat with her husband and daughter at her side through most of the day, stood near the end of the reading of the verdict and interrupted the judge, shouting that she didn’t agree with the verdict and calling on Ukrainians to unite against what she labeled repressions reminiscent of the Stalinist era.
“I declare that [1937] has returned and I call upon all the people to protect Ukraine against totalitarianism,” Tymoshenko said in her courtroom remarks televised by Russia-24 television network. “Don’t lose spirit and we will overcome the authoritarian regime together.”
The charismatic Tymoshenko, popularly called the princess of the 2004 Orange Revolution, came under fire from law enforcement agencies shortly after she lost the 2010 presidential election to Yanukovich by 3 percentage points.
Her opponents hailed the verdict and predicted more trials for Tymoshenko ahead. The former prime minister may face high treason charges, said Inna Bogoslovskaya, a lawmaker from Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions.
“It would be proper to call her a gas princess who was acting in the interests of Russia when she signed the infamous deal which set up Ukraine for 10 years with ludicrously unfair gas prices,” said Bogoslovskaya, who also heads the Supreme Rada, the national parliament’s commission to investigate the signing of the 2009 deal, in a telephone interview. “Based on numerous documents, we have established that, at the time of signing the gas deal, companies controlled by Tymoshenko and her family owed more than $400 million to the Russian Defense Ministry for earlier deals and she was acting under foreign influence.”
Bogoslovskaya maintained that the verdict sets a necessary precedent by “breaking the vicious circle which left crimes committed by high-rank state official unpunished.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry lashed out at the verdict, stressing its “obvious anti-Russian implication.”
The court “ignored the convincing evidence that the said gas agreements were concluded in strict accordance with the legislation of Russia and Ukraine and the norms of international law,” said its statement, published on the ministry website.
Tymoshenko was led out of the courtroom and taken away in a gray prison van. Several hundred supporters in the streets tried to break through the police cordons. In the footage shown by Russia-24, protesters were throwing flowers under the wheels of the van chanting: “Yulia,Yulia!”
The opposition plans to intensify protests in an attempt to bring down the current parliament and force a new election, said Natalia Korolevskaya, a lawmaker from Tymoshenko’s Byut Party.
“We need to mobilize a maximum number of people and unite all the opposition forces in their struggle against the unfair verdict,” Korolevskaya said in a phone interview. “The verdict of Tymoshenko is a verdict of the entire country, further curbing the people’s constitutional rights and freedoms.”
Article: Ukraine ex-prime minister convicted of abuse of power
Article Source: LA Times
Author: Sergei L. Loiko