Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has again refused to attend a court hearing in the case on the financial irregularities of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) Corporation, the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine reported on Monday.
“Today prisoner Tymoshenko was given a summons to Kyivsky District Court in Kharkiv to participate in a court hearing on December 18. However, the prisoner again wrote a statement that she won’t attend the court session, referring to the state of her health. This is the 12th consecutive refusal by prisoner Tymoshenko to attend a court hearing,” reads the statement.
Tymoshenko faces five charges in the case – organizing the appropriation of public funds of an especially large amount in 1997-1998 via illicitly receiving value added tax (VAT) (Part 3 of Article 27, Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), attempting to appropriate public funds of an especially large amount in 1997-1998 via illicitly receiving VAT (Part 3 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 15, Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code), tax evasion by the UESU Corporation (Part 3 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code), the non-payment of income tax (Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code), and committing a crime via official forgery (Part 3 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code).
A preliminary hearing of the case was held on April 19, 2012 in the absence of Tymoshenko. Since then the court has been putting off hearings due to the fact that Tymoshenko kept refusing to attend the hearings due to her state of health.
On October 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office in signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She has served her sentence in Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv since late December 2011.
On May 9, 2012, Tymoshenko was transferred to Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv to undergo a course of treatment.
