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Court postpones Timoshenko case consideration to Aug 14

Judge Konstantin Sadovsky announced the decision on the postponement on Tuesday
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

KHARKOV, July 31 (Itar-Tass) — Kharkov's Kievsky district court postponed the consideration of the case against ex-premier and Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Timoshenko over abuses of the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine company, she headed in 1995-97. Judge Konstantin Sadovsky announced the decision on the postponement on Tuesday.

The court will consider whether it is possible for Timoshenko to participate in the court meetings through a video conference, a Fatherland Party press service source told Itar-Tass.

Earlier, the prosecution party asked the court to consider the possibility for Timoshenko's participation through a video conference.

The ex-premier's attorney Sergei Vlasenko read out the defendant's written statement, in which she refused to participate in the meeting in such a format.

Timoshenko is charged with organization of embezzlement of budget funds and an attempt to embezzle state budget funds totaling 25 mln hryvnas (more than three mln dlrs), four million hryvnas (500,000 dlrs) tax evasion and the use of a payment card of a foreign company, from the account of which Timoshenko took almost one mln dlrs to pay for luxurious hotels and restaurants, without paying taxes for the sum.

Timoshenko serves the term for her first criminal case. Kiev's Pechersky court in October last year sentenced her to seven years' imprisonment on charges of power abuse when gas contracts with Russia were signed in 2009. Since May 9, Timoshenko, who complains of back pains, undergoes treatment in the railway workers' hospital in Kharkov.