You're reading: Brussels disappointed by statements about new charges against Tymoshenko

BRUSSELS – Brussels officials have said that public statements about new charges that are to be brought against former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko appear to prejudge the outcome of ongoing judicial processes.

“It is always a very bad surprise and a disappointment when
representatives of the Ukrainian state, including the Prosecutor
General’s Office, make public statements which appear to prejudge the
outcome of ongoing judicial processes,” Peter Stano, the spokesman of EU
Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan
Fule, told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

As reported, earlier on Thursday First Deputy Prosecutor General
Renat Kuzmin said that the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has
enough grounds to charge Yulia Tymoshenko with involvement in killing
Verkhovna Rada deputy Yevhen Scherban in 1996.

On October 11, 2011, the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced
Tymoshenko to seven years of imprisonment for exceeding her authority
when signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She has been serving her
sentence at the Kachanivska correctional facility in Kharkiv since late
December 2011.

Currently Tymoshenko is undergoing treatment at a Kharkiv hospital.

Meanwhile, court hearings of the criminal case on the activities of
the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) Corporation, which was
managed by Tymoshenko, are being held in Kharkiv.

The ex-premier refuses to attend the court hearings of the UESU case
due to her health condition. The next hearing is scheduled for August
14.

The hearing of an appeal against Tymoshenko’s conviction in the gas case is scheduled for August 16.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has announced that it will
hold a public hearing on Tymoshenko’s appeal against her detention on
August 28.