You're reading: Tymoshenko allowed defense counsel, claims Yanukovych ordered her arrest by Independence Day

Judge of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court Rodion Kireyev, presiding in hearing of a criminal case on the gas contracts, has allowed Yuriy Sukhov to defend Ukraine's former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in court.

Sukhov immediately filed a petition requesting the court to give him eight weeks to study the gas case materials, Tymoshenko’s official website reported.

Before entering the building of Pechersky District Court in Kyiv on Monday Tymoshenko said that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has issued instructions to arrest her by Aug. 24.

"According to our information, Yanukovych has instructed the judge through his office staff that I should be arrested by Aug. 24. So that the unfair sentence should be passed on me, which is ordered by Yanukovych, and so that by the 20th anniversary of the Independence of Ukraine he could do away with the opposition," said Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko is charged with abusing her powers by signing a natural gas import contract with Russia in 2009 that prosecutors claim was disadvantageous for Ukraine.

Tymoshenko says the contract ended weeks of natural gas disruptions to Ukrainian and European consumers and that she did not need permission to sign it as the country’s premier.

Many Tymoshenko allies also have faced charges recently, which she describes as part of the government’s efforts to weaken the opposition.

Her former economics minister, who faced corruption allegations over the reconstruction of Kyiv’s airport, was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic in January.

A former interior minister has been in jail for six months on charges that he defrauded the government when he paid his driver illegal bonuses.

The United States and the European Union have criticized as political persecution the Tymoshenko trial and other corruption probes involving her and her top allies.

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