You're reading: Prosecutors: Tymoshenko distorting words of state prosecutor

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has said that former Ukrainian Prime Minister and leader of the Batkivschyna Party Yulia Tymoshenko misled the public by saying at a meeting of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv on Monday that Liliya Frolova, the state prosecutor on a criminal case opened against Tymoshenko, allegedly said at a briefing that the accused would be sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.

"Yulia Tymoshenko openly lied, distorting the information," reads a report released by the media liaison department of the Prosecutor General’s Office on Monday.

The department also released a shorthand report of the speech by Frolova at the briefing.

According to the text of the shorthand report, when asked by a correspondent "which sentence the official prosecution would impose on Yulia Tymoshenko," Frolova answered: "In general currently it is impossible to speak about any sentence as the procedure of judicial investigation has not started yet. We can’t speak now for the purposes of a full, comprehensive and objective consideration. We must investigate everything that was achieved at the stage of a pre-trial investigation, assess this and then we will decide on our position." When again asked by the correspondent "What does Article 365 of the Criminal Code maximum foresee?" Frolova answered: "[It foresees] 10 years of imprisonment," the Prosecutor General’s Office reported.