All news

Timoshenko feels well enough to appear in court

The leader of Ukraine’s party Batkivshchina, former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko is well enough to appear in court

KIEV, July 21 (Itar-Tass) —— The leader of Ukraine’s party Batkivshchina, former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko is well enough to appear in court, her lawyer, parliament member Sergei Vlasenko said on television Friday.

“We have received the conclusion of so-called experts in Kharkov everything is fine and Timoshenko can be present in the courtroom,” he said.

A district court in Kharkov on June 25 ordered a medical examination of Timoshenko with the aim to find out whether she can attend hearings on the case of the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine corporation, which Timoshenko led in 1995-1997. The Opposition’s leader on Friday refused to attend the hearings again on the excuse she must consult with German doctors, the state penitentiary service said.

“This is a sixth time in a row Yulia Timoshenko refuses to be present at court hearings on the UESU case and on her appeal,” the penitentiary’s service has said.

The next meeting of the district court in Kharkov on the new criminal case against the leader of the Opposition is due on July 23. On July 10 the court session was postponed, because the defendant was absent.

In the UESU case the former Ukrainian prime minster is faced with charges of abuse committed in the mid-1990s in the capacity of the corporation’s CEO. Timoshenko is accused on three counts – organization of theft of budget money and attempted theft of state budget money (more than three million dollars), tax evasion (500,000 dollars), the use of a payment card of a foreign company with which she covered nearly one million dollars of expenses at luxurious hotels and restaurants without paying the taxes.

A court in Kiev on October 11, 2011 sentenced Timoshenko to seven years in jail for abusing her powers when signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She has served her prison sentence in a Kharkov penitentiary since late December 2011. On May 9 Timoshenko had to be transferred from the penitentiary to a hospital for health reasons. She is being treated by German doctors.