All news

Kharkov court to continue to try new criminal case vs Timoshenko

On June 25, the court ruled to conduct a relevant forensic expertise on her
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

KIEV, July 23 (Itar-Tass) —— The Kievsky District Court of Kharkov will continue to try a criminal case versus leader of the Ukrainian opposition Yulia Timoshenko over the operation of the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine Corporation, which the latter headed in 1995-1997.

On July 10, the court session was postponed over the absence of the defendant.

The former prime minister, who is taking a recuperation course at the Kharkov railway hospital, claimed that she cannot stand in court over her dissatisfactory health.On June 25, the court ruled to conduct a relevant forensic expertise on her .

“We received the conclusions from the so-called Kharkov experts that everything is all right and Timoshenko can be present at a court session,” Timoshenko’s lawyer Sergei Vlasenko said live on the Ukrainian television on July 20. However, the health of his client has deteriorated recently. Despite this fact she is expected to be brought to the court by force.

The Ukrainian Health Ministry voiced its concerns over the progress of treatment of the opposition leader. “Timoshenko’s rehabilitation lasts already for a quite long period of time that is not characteristic for the treatment and prevention of such health problems, which were diagnosed in the patient,” the ministry said.

The Health Ministry has also made claims to German doctors from the clinic Charite that are supervising the treatment. The doctors “did not report about the duration of further rehabilitation, the intermediate results that were achieved and the prospects for the health of Timoshenko.” The ministry also stated that it does not rule out political motives behind the current situation with Timoshenko.

Under the criminal case over the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine Corporation the former Ukrainian prime minister is accused of frauds during the period of her work at the post of the CEO of the corporation in the mid-nineties. Timoshenko faced three charges: the masterminding of misappropriation of budgetary funds and the attempt at misappropriating state budget funds to the tune of 25 million hryvnas (over three million dollars), tax evasion by the corporation to the tune of four million hryvnas (500,000 dollars), the use of the payment card of a foreign company, from the account of which Timoshenko cashed about one million dollars for the expenses at expensive hotels and restaurants without paying taxes from this sum.

The Pechersky District Court of Kiev sentenced Timoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of power in the signing of the 2009 gas contracts with Russia on October 11, 2011. She has been serving the sentence at the Kachanovo penitentiary in Kharkov since late December 2011. On May 9 over a worse health Timoshenko was transferred from the penitentiary to the fifth central clinical hospital. German doctors from the clinic Charite prescribe the treatment for the former prime minister.