You're reading: Tymoshenko: On Yanukovych’s order, judge is depriving me of defense

Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has said that the government, through Judge Rodion Kireyev of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv, is trying to deprive her of a proper defense.

"You deprived one of my lawyers, Mykola Tytarenko, of the right to review the case materials and you want to deprive the other – Serhiy Vlasenko – of the right to gather evidence of my innocence that can be presented in court. You are violating every article of the Criminal Procedure Code as it relates to my defense, on orders from Yanukovych to do everything to deprive me of quality defense," Yulia Tymoshenko said, when justifying the absence of lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko, reads Tymoshenko’s website.

Yulia Tymoshenko cited article 6 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine according to which a lawyer can present evidence that can be used to determine the truth in a case.

Yulia Tymoshenko also gave the court a personal statement from Serhiy Vlasenko explaining his absence and requesting that the court comply with the law and announce a break in the proceedings until July 15, 2011.