You're reading: Tymoshenko asks time to review the case file

Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has said she plans to ask the court for a one month extension so that defense lawyer Mykola Tytarenko can review the materials of the criminal case against her.

"Everyone understands that if a defense lawyer is given one day to read 4,000 pages, that this is a dishonest and unfair trial. Today we will insist that my lawyer be given the opportunity, as provided by law, a month to familiarize himself with this criminal case," Yulia Tymoshenko said before the start of today’s court session, reads Tymoshenko’s website.

Yulia Tymoshenko said that this time is needed to prepare their line of defense.

"Of course there was no crime, but we have to be ready to defend ourselves against the regime and the system of political repression," she added.

Ukrainian security service says it has opened a criminal investigation into the activities of an energy company once headed by Tymoshenko.

The new probe focuses on whether former Cabinet officials and employees of United Energy Systems of Ukraine, a firm managed by Tymoshenko in the mid 1990s, embezzled $405 million.
Tymoshenko has been charged with abuse of office in signing a deal with Moscow to buy Russian natural gas at prices investigators said were too high.

She denies the charges, and describes them as a political plot by her rival, President Viktor Yanukovych, to keep her out of upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.

The United States and the European Union have condemned the cases against Tymoshenko and a number of her top allies as selective prosecution of political opponents.