A court hearing of the UESU case on charges brought against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been postponed until December 27.
“The court decided that it is impossible to consider the case in
Tymoshenko’s absence. The court hearing was adjourned until 1000 on
December 27,” reads a court ruling, which was read out by Judge
Kostiantyn Sadovsky.
The judge also said that all applications concerning the case would
be considered at a respective stage of the trial in the presence of the
defendant.
The daughter of the former prime minister and her defense lawyer,
Yevhenia Tymoshenko, responded to this ruling, saying: “Why didn’t you
schedule [the court hearing] for New Year’ Eve?”
Tymoshenko’s supporters met the ruling, shouting “Shame!”
Tymoshenko faces five charges in the case – organizing the
appropriation of public funds of an especially large amount in 1997-1998
via illicitly receiving value added tax (VAT) (Part 3 of Article 27,
Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), attempting to
appropriate public funds of an especially large amount in 1997-1998 via
illicitly receiving VAT (Part 3 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 15,
Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code), tax evasion by the UESU
Corporation (Part 3 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal
Code), the non-payment of income tax (Part 3 of Article 212 of the
Criminal Code), and committing a crime via official forgery (Part 3 of
Article 27, Part 2 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code).
A preliminary hearing of the case was held on April 19, 2012 in the
absence of Tymoshenko. Since then the court has been putting off
hearings due to the fact that Tymoshenko kept refusing to attend the
hearings due to her state of health.
