You're reading: Tymoshenko files appeal against court ruling in gas case

The defense team of Ukraine's former premier and Batkivschyna Leader Yulia Tymoshenko has submitted an appeal against the verdict of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court, which sentenced the ex-premier to seven years in prison for abusing her authority while signing gas agreements with Russia in 2009.

The ex-premier filed an appeal against the sentence of the court through the detention facility’s administration, Tymoshenko’s defender Serhiy Vlasenko said in Kyiv on Monday in front of the jail.

"According to the law, if a person is kept in custody, the transfer of any procedural document to the management of the detention facility is considered to be its transfer to the court," Vlasenko said.

"Thus today, roughly speaking, Yulia Volodymyrivna made her appeal," he said after visiting the ex-premier in jail.

"I think that tomorrow we’ll send a copy to the court and inform the court that we have submitted the appeal here [to the prison’s administration]," Vlasenko said.

He stressed that October 25 is the deadline for the appeal against the verdict of the Pechersky District Court.

The court sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison and obliged her to pay compensation to Naftogaz of Ukraine for the losses it sustained through the 2009 gas contract with Russia.