Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has again refused to participate in the court hearing of a criminal case on the activities of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) Corporation, explaining the refusal by her treatment at Kharkiv-based Central Clinical Hospital No. 5.
According to the press service of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine, Tymoshenko read a summons of Kharkiv-based Kyivsky District Court to appear in court for a sitting scheduled for February 12.
The prison service said the jailed ex-premier has been refusing to attend court hearings for 10 months.
As reported, the court hearing of the case against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko concerning financial abuses within the UESU Corporation was adjourned until Feb. 12.
A private hearing of the case was held on April 19, 2012. Tymoshenko did not attend any of those hearings.
On Jan. 16, 2013, Tymoshenko’s defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko said doctors from the Berlin clinic Charite, who are coordinating Timoshenko’s’ rehabilitation program, doubt that her health allows her transportation to the court.
At the same time, Mykhailo Afanasyev, the chief of Central Clinical Hospital No. 5, earlier said the international medical commission has come to the conclusion that there are no medical reasons why Yulia Tymoshenko cannot be transported to court. At the same time, he reiterated that decisions on Tymoshenko’s transportation to court are made by the judge, not doctors.
In December 2012, Vlasenko said the penitentiary service had been ordered to take Tymoshenko to the Jan. 18 hearing at any costs. The penitentiary service denied that information.
As reported, on Jan. 8, 2013, Vlasenko read out Tymoshenko’s open letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, in which the ex-premier declared a campaign of civil disobedience.
The former prime minister said that she refused to recognize the prosecutors and investigators involved in her case and was not going to talk to them anymore. Tymoshenko also said she would not come to court voluntarily, and should they try to bring her to court by force, she would offer every resistance she could. The ex-premier also refused to go back to her hospital ward unless video surveillance and the guard are removed.
Tymoshenko is charged under five counts in the UESU case.
On Oct. 11, 2011, Kyiv Pechersky District Court sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for exceeding her powers when signing gas supply contracts with Russia in 2009. She has served her sentence in the Kharkiv Kachanivska Penal Colony since late December 2011.
Tymoshenko is currently undergoing treatment at Kharkiv-based Central Clinical Hospital No. 5.
Investigatory proceedings on the criminal case on the murder of Ukrainian parliamentarian Yevhen Scherban in 1996 are scheduled for Feb. 13. Judge of Kyiv Pechersky District Court Oksana Tsarevych ordered the prison service to take Tymoshenko, who is a suspect in the case, to a court sitting on the case.
Earlier, Tymoshenko asked the court to postpone investigatory proceedings that are to be held via a video linkup for two or three weeks. The ex-premier explained that she wanted to read the materials of the case and prepare for the proceedings properly.
