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Timoshenko refuses to have videoconference with New York court

She explained her refusal with medical recommendations

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

KIEV, August 10 (Itar-Tass) — Ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko has refused to have a videoconference with a New York court hearing the case Universal Trading and Investment Co Inc vs. Timoshenko, the Ukrainian State Penitentiary Service reported on Friday.

Timoshenko, who is receiving therapy at a Kharkov hospital, explained her refusal with medical recommendations. The Penitentiary Service noted that the hospital was technically capable of organizing the videoconference.

The U.S company sued Timoshenko demanding payment of $18 million in Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine debts. Timoshenko’s lawyer Sergei Vlasenko said earlier that Timoshenko would not speak to lawyers of Universal Trading Investment Co Inc until she had a chance to consult her American defense.

The dispute started in the late 1990s. Timoshenko has repeatedly branded the company as a dummy mastered by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office.

Timoshenko was taken into custody in the Kiev Pechersky District Court room on August 5, 2011, for “systematic breach of the court procedures, disrespect for the court and dragging out of the gas trial.” The court sentenced her on October 11, 2011, for exceeding her authority in the signing of the gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She was also compelled to pay 1.51 billion hryvni (almost $200 million) to Neftegaz Ukrainy.

A new case against her was opened on October 13, 2011, for writing off the debt of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine private corporation to the Russian Defense Ministry worth $405,500,000 to the state budget of Ukraine, while being the corporation president, under conspiracy with other former Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko.

Timoshenko is serving a seven-year-term in Kharkov. She has been receiving therapy at the Kharkov Ukrzheldorogi hospital since May 9.

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