Former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko has asked the High Specialized Court on Civil and Criminal Cases for a third time to hear an appeal by her defense lawyer Oleksandr Plakhotniuk against the ruling in the gas case in her absence.
“Despite the absurd situation, despite the lawlessness, we expect that on the day after tomorrow the High Specialized Court will postpone the hearing of the case, regardless of the third request of Yulia Tymoshenko in which she asks it to hear her case in her absence, as is her right,” the ex-premier’s defense lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, said, reads a posting on Tymoshenko’s Web site.
Pechersky District Court in Kyiv found Tymoshenko guilty of abuse of office in signing gas supply agreements with Russia in 2009 and sentenced her to seven years in prison on October 11, 2011. She started serving her prison term at a Kharkiv-based penitentiary at the end of December 2011.
On June 25, the High Specialized Court of Ukraine on Civil and Criminal Cases put off the hearing of Tymoshenko’s appeal against the ruling in the gas case until July 12.
The presiding judge in the case, Stanislav Mischenko, satisfied the state prosecution’s petition explaining that the court needed information on Tymoshenko’s health via a medical examination.
