KIEV, April 25. /ITAR-TASS/. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has initiated criminal proceedings against judges who sentenced former Prime Minister and leader of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party Yulia Tymoshenko, a current candidate for presidency, to a prison term in the so-called gas case.

The press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Friday that a pre-trial investigation had been initiated against a number of officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Pechersky district court and Kiev’s court of appeals. The Prosecutor General’s Office claims the sentence had been passed based on mere “hypotheses, guess-work and personal opinions.”

“It was a deliberate, systematic and flagrant violation of accused Yulia Tymoshenko’s rights to defense, which are granted by Ukraine’s current laws,” the press service said.

On April 14, Ukraine’s Supreme Court closed the “gas case” against Tymoshenko for “absence of a criminal act”. The decision was passed by 42 out of 48 judges.

In October 2011, Tymoshenko was sentenced to a prison term of seven years for acting in excess of her office duties while signing gas contracts with Russia in January 2009, when she was Ukraine’s prime minister. She was released in February 2014.