Ukraine's jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is urging her country to defeat President Viktor Yanukovych's party in next month's parliamentary election.
In an emotional video appeal, Tymoshenko accused Yanukovych of turning Ukraine into a “police state.”
Her lawyer says the video, released Saturday, was recorded by him on a cellphone in a hospital where she is receiving treatment for back pain. It was the first such video since she was jailed over a year ago on charges of abuse of office.
The West has condemned her imprisonment as politically motivated. Tymoshenko urged Ukrainians to support her party in the Oct. 28 election and end Yanukovych’s alleged “criminal” rule.
Yanukovych’s Party of Regions hopes to maintain its parliamentary majority; the next presidential election is in 2015.
