You're reading: Tymoshenko comes for questioning without lawyer again, says she isn’t afraid of arrest

Leader of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Union and Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko came to the main investigation department of the Prosecutor General's Office on Friday without a lawyer and said that she was not afraid of arrest.

"I have come without a lawyer today, because the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has denied me a defender. I filed a petition and chose lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko, but the Prosecutor General’s Office denied me a defender," Tymoshenko told journalists on Friday before visiting the Main Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, where she was summoned for questioning in the case related to the gas contracts concluded in 2009.

"I will once again request having a defender, whom I have chosen myself – Serhiy Vlasenko," the former prime minister said.

When asked to comment on a statement by the Prosecutor General’s Office about the possibility of imposing a tougher pre-trial restrictive measure on her due to the fact that she is dragging out the investigative actions, coming in for questioning without a lawyer, Tymoshenko said: "They have been threatening me for twelve years at least." "The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine today is being paid by oligarchy and controlled by oligarchy through the president. Another threat, which was voiced yesterday by the Prosecutor General’s Office, will change nothing in my position, ability and willingness to fight. I don’t know what kind of instruction and when they will receive from [Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych, but I am not afraid of whatever illegal action they may take, including the arrest. And I want to urge all Ukrainians not to be afraid," the ex-premier said.