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Court of Appeal to discuss complaint on Timoshenko case

Lawyers Yulia Timoshenko believe that the complaint against the verdict of the Pechersky District Court on the “gas case” will be considered in an accelerated way

KIEV, October 25 (Itar-Tass) —— Lawyers of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko believe that the complaint against the verdict of the Pechersky District Court on the “gas case” will be considered in an accelerated way, Sergey Vlasenko, head of the group of lawyers defending Timoshenko, said here on Tuesday. He registered in the Pechersky Court a copy of the appeal of his client, while Ms. Timoshenko handed the original of the document to senior officials of the investigation prison.

Vlasenko told journalists that, according to his information, “pressure is being exerted on judges of the Court of Appeal.” “They are being forced to hear the case in accordance with the accelerated procedure, without the interrogation of witnesses and the examination of pieces of evidence,” Vlasenko said. “The judges of the Court of Appeal are being forced to hear the case in five minutes and to recognize as legal all that was done by Justice Rodion Kireyev.”

At the same time, Vlasenko hopes that the Court of Appeal would continue the court hearings.

The main complaint was signed by Yulia Timoshenko and forwarded on Monday through the administration of the investigation prison, in which she has been kept since August 5, this year. The lawyers repeated the complaint procedure. According to Alexander Turchinov, first deputy president of the Batkivshchina (Fatherland) Party, they did it because they do not want the complaint to be lost. “One should know those who are in power today. This is why the lawyers forwarded the appeal to the court on their own,” he said.

On October 11, the Pechersky Court of Kiev found Timoshenko guilty of the abuse of office during the concluding of gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment. Aside from it, she should pay 1.5 billion hryvni (some 190 million dollars) in compensation for the damage done to the Naftogaz Ukrainy Company. After she serves the prison term, she will not be allowed to hold official posts for three years. The time for appealing against the verdict expires on October 26.

On Monday the Prosecutor-General’s Office “reanimated” another criminal case against Timoshenko, on which criminal proceedings were instituted ten years ago. She was accused of stealing 25 million hryvni (3.1 million dollars) from the budget and avoiding the payment of taxes to the sum of 20 million hryvni (2.5 million dollars). The case was dropped by the Prosecutor-General’s Office in 2005.