KYIV - Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, serving a prison sentence for abuse of office in a case criticised by the West as politically motivated, will soon stand a new trial on charges of tax evasion, state prosecutors said on March 28.
Tymoshenko, the fiercest opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich, was sentenced to seven years in prison last October for overstepping her powers in forcing through a gas deal with Russia in 2009.
She denies any wrongdoing and the European Union has said it regarded Tymoshenko’s case as an example of selective justice, urging her release and putting off the signing of bilateral agreements on political association and free trade over the issue.
Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have instead pressed ahead with even more charges against Tymoshenko.
A new case, in which Tymoshenko is accused of tax evasion and other offences during her stint as the head of a private energy firm in the 1990s, will be sent to a court within five days, the prosecutor general’s office said on March 28.
According to state security service SBU, Tymoshenko is accused of tax evasion and attempted theft of state property. "The total damage incurred on the state by Tymoshenko’s illegal actions" amounted to millions of dollars," it said in a statement.
Tymoshenko, 51, is now in prison in the eastern city of Kharkiv and could not be reached for comment.
A successful entrepreneur in the 1990s, she gained worldwide prominence as a leader of the 2004 "Orange Revolution" which thwarted Yanukovich’s first bid for presidency. She has since served twice as prime minister.
In 2010, Yanukovich beat her in a close run-off for the presidency after Tymoshenko’s popularity suffered due to a split in the "Orange" camp and the global economic downturn.
Several members of Tymoshenko’s cabinet have been charged or convicted and her husband, along with a former economy minister from her cabinet, have fled to the Czech Republic.
This week, Ukrainian prosecutors said they would seek the extradition of another Tymoshenko ally, former regional governor Arsen Avakov who has been detained in Italy.
