Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has not received any documents confirming the refusal of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to close the criminal case on the debt of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) Corporation due to the lack of evidence of a crime in it, the ex-premier's defense lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, has said.
“As of yesterday, Yulia Tymoshenko has not received any documents,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He added that if the information about the SBU’s refusal to close the UESU case against Tymoshenko were confirmed, it would be “another absurd decision.”
“It will be another absurd decision. The only thing they are accusing Yulia Volodymyrivna of in the criminal case is that there was a state guaranty on the UESU Corporation’s debt. The letters of [former Ukrainian Premier Pavlo] Lazarenko mentioned by them cannot be considered as state guarantees for a million reasons. And the Cabinet of Ministers – pay attention to the fact that it is led by [Ukrainian Premier Mykola] Azarov, and not Tymoshenko – had to admit in court that such guarantees do not exist,” Vlasenko said.
As reported, on October 23, 2012, Tymoshenko filed a petition to close the criminal case on sovereign guarantees concerning the obligations of the UESU Corporation.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry filed at Kyiv Economic Court a lawsuit against the Ukrainian government for the non-payment of UAH 3.239 billion under a criminal case on the activities of the UESU Corporation. The plaintiff also asked the court to summon the State Treasury Service of Ukraine as a third party on the side of the defendant in the case. The UESU is also a third party on the side of the defendant in the case.
The Russian ministry claims that, in the 1990s, the UESU, which was then headed by former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko, failed to meet its commitments in supplies for the Russian military under a 1997 agreement. The then Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko allegedly provided state guarantees that the commitments would be fulfilled.
UESU representative Oleksandr Kovalchuk said in court that Lazarenko had made promises that the UESU would meet its commitments in letters, and that they could not be legally qualified as state guarantees. Kovalchuk also said that alleged pressure from the Ukrainian government had prevented the UESU from fulfilling its commitments.
The Ukrainian government representatives also told the court there had been no state guarantees and argued that the statute of limitations made the suit invalid.
On September 19, 2012 Kyiv Economic Court partially satisfied a suit from the Russian Defense Ministry concerning a debt accumulated by the UESU, ordering Ukraine to pay UAH 3.11 billion ($400 million) to Russia’s defense agency.
On September 25, 2012 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine filed an appeal against the ruling of the Economic Court.
On October 22, 2012 Kyiv Economic Court of Appeals suspended the consideration of an appeal against a ruling by Kyiv Economic Court obliging the Ukrainian government to pay over UAH 3.1 billion (about $390 million) of the debt of the UESU Corporation to the Russian Defense Ministry pending the investigation of a criminal case into the issue by the SBU.
On October 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for overstepping her authority when signing 2009 gas contracts with Russia. She has served her sentence in Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv since late December 2011. Currently, she is undergoing a treatment course at Kharkiv-based Central Clinical Hospital No. 5.
Kyivsky District Court of Kharkiv is hearing the case of Tymoshenko, who is suspected of fraud while she was the UESU’s head.
Tymoshenko faces five charges in the case – organization of the appropriation of public funds in 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), attempt 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), 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.
The next hearing of the case is scheduled for November 13.
