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Kiev court bars Timoshenko’s backers to visit her at investigation jail

Kiev’s Pechersky court refused supporters of Ukrainian ex-premier Yulia Timoshenko to visit her at the Lukyanovsky investigation ward

KIEV, October 15 (Itar-Tass) — Kiev’s Pechersky court refused supporters of Ukrainian ex-premier Yulia Timoshenko to visit her at the Lukyanovsky investigation ward, reported on Saturday the press service of the Ukrainian amalgamation Batkivshchina whose leader Timoshenko is.

The report says that a letter was sent to judge Rodion Kireyev who chaired the trial, with a request to permit visiting Timoshenko at the investigation ward. The letter was signed by deputy speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Nikolai Tomenko, leader of the parliamentary faction BUT-Batkivshchina Ivan Kirilenko and other legislators.

Kireyev replied to the request with a refusal, the reason for which he called the circumstance that “the court did not find sufficient grounds to give a permit to visit Yulia Timoshenko”. The judge refers to legislation, under which “it is possible to visit Timoshenko during the court investigation, but no more than once a month”.

The Pechersky district court sentenced Yulia Timoshenko on October 11 to a seven-year prison term for abuse of powers in signing the gas understandings with Russia early in 2009.

Her defence lawyer at court hearings Alexander Plakhotnyuk said on Saturday that the defence is ready “to tender an appeal concerning the sentence by the Pechersky Court late next week”. Plakhotnyuk reckons that “an exact day of handing over an appellation plays no role either for the strategy or for tactics.

“We shall tender it when it is ready and in time, provided for by Ukrainian legislation,” the lawyer assured.

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