You're reading: Book by German journalist Schumann ‘The Swindler. Tymoshenko Case’ presented in Kyiv

Kharkiv publishing house Folio has presented a Russian-language book by German journalist and publicist Frank Schumann "The Swindler. Tymoshenko Case" dedicated to former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and criminal cases opened against her.

“I pursued the goal of giving an objective picture of the Tymoshenko case and Tymoshenko herself. In the media in our country [in Germany] she is seen as a bearer of democratic values, but, in my opinion, it’s not so. She is a criminal. A Ukrainian court sentenced her to seven years in prison for similar crimes for which her partner, [former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo] Lazarenko, was sentenced to nine years of imprisonment in the United States. Ukraine is building democracy, and the basis for it is the rule of law, that is equal rights for all and equal laws for all. Everyone knows that Tymoshenko started with a video shop in the early 1990s and then suddenly became a multi-millionaire in a few years. Do you believe that in such a short period of time it is possible to earn such a capital through honest work?” he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

He said that in order to write a book, he had sent a request to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine to organize a meeting in Ukraine.

“After that, I had a conversation with First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin, and then I met with First Deputy Head of the State Penitentiary Service Serhiy Sydorenko, and after that I visited the prison in Kharkiv,” Schumann said.

He said that after meeting with representatives of the prosecutor’s office, the State Penitentiary Service, doctors, and studying the documents on the “gas case,” the “UESU case” and the “Scherban case,” he got a better idea of what charges were brought against Tymoshenko.

“I also planned to meet with Tymoshenko, but such an opportunity was not given to me. We tried to talk to her party, and I repeatedly called the press service and Mr. Vlasenko [Tymoshenko’s lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko], but there was simply no reaction, and nobody answered the phone. When I returned to Germany, I also used a few more articles in the press for my book,” Schumann said.

The book in Ukrainian will be published in late November or early December 2012.