Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said on Thursday, May 13, he would not intervene in a criminal case re-opened against his opponent, ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and called her a person who loved "sensation".
Speaking to a group of journalists, Yanukovych said he had had no foreknowledge of the resumption of the 2004 case in which Tymoshenko is accused of attempting to bribe Supreme Court judges.
"The president cannot interfere (in the legal procedure)," he said. He went on: "She likes to create a sensation. We have grown used to this extravagant woman."
Tymoshenko lost to Yanukovych in a bitterly-fought election for president in February and has refused to recognise him as legitimately elected, saying his backers conducted electoral fraud, an allegation they have denied. When the criminal case was re-opened against her on Wednesday, Tymoshenko said Yanukovych was behind the move and accused him of carrying out "open, undisguised repression" against her.
