You're reading: Tymoshenko questioned as witness in case on misuse of funds (VIDEO)

Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has said that she was questioned at the main investigation department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine on Thursday as a witness in the case on the misuse of funds allocated under the Kyoto Protocol.

"The authorities are accusing me of spending the funds allocated under the Kyoto Protocol on pensions and benefits during the global financial crisis," she told journalists on Thursday while leaving the building of the investigation department where she was summoned.

Tymoshenko said that she was a witness in the case and that she was not on her own recognizance.

"I explained to the investigators that the money received from the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol was quite a large sum – 320 million euros – that was not spent anywhere. The funds are on the special accounts of the Environment Ministry… I think that after the investigators learned much to their surprise that all the money was in place, they simply had nothing to bring against me," she said.

Tymoshenko also noted she did not know whether she would again be summoned to the central investigation department of the Prosecutor General’s Office in this connection.

She said that she indicated in the interrogation protocol that as a Ukrainian citizen she informs the Prosecutor General’s Office about "a crime." She said that the issue concerned the investigations by journalists posted on the Web site of the Ukrainska Pravda online Internet newspaper that current Prime Minister Mykola Azarov transferred Hr 150 million to the account of his son and nearly Hr 400 million to the private accounts of a private company owned by First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Kliuyev and Donetsk Regional Governor Anatoliy Blyzniuk.

"I asked them to record this in the protocol, and they did. I believe that if the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine is working objectively, rather than politically, then it’s necessary to urgently open a criminal case, return money to the budget and bring to justice those who are to blame for this," the politician said.

The Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed that Tymoshenko had been summoned for questioning on Thursday.

On April 28, 2010, the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case regarding the violation of legislation on the budgetary system and the abuse of office during the use of funds received in 2009 from the sale of quotas for greenhouse gas emissions.

The issue concerns the use of budgetary funds received in 2009 from the sale of part of quotas for greenhouse gas emissions under Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol.

A pre-trial investigation revealed that after the adoption by former officials of the Cabinet of Ministers and the Finance Ministry of the legislative acts contradicting to the law on the state budget for 2009, the State Treasury had changed the target use of the funds from the state budget’s special fund, worth Hr 2.3 billion, received from the sale of quotas for greenhouse gas emissions.

Following the investigation, a criminal case was opened under part 2, Article 210 and part 2, Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.