Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said that the judge of the Pechersky district court in Kyiv, Rodion Kireyev, fully ignores her arguments in the case of gas contracts at instructions from the authorities.
"The trial, which is a farce, is deliberately held now to stamp out the opposition in Ukraine, to strip it of the possibility to fight for Ukraine’s independence, to prevent it from offering an alterative to our country’s development," she said at a Wednesday briefing following a court session.
"He [Kireyev] disregarded the fact that the directives [to sign gas contracts with Russia] were my personal ones as the prime minister, not directives of the Cabinet," Tymoshenko said.
Therefore there had been no abuse of power on her part, she said.
Tymoshenko also said that an audit conducted by Ernst & Young indicated that "no losses were caused to the state" in 2009.
"The judge did not simply ignore apparent and qualified arguments. He had a task of doing away with me," she said.
