You're reading: Vlasenko: Tymoshenko won’t talk to UTICo lawyers at video conference

Kharkiv – Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko will not talk to lawyers of the U.S. consulting firm U.S. Universal Trading and Investment Company (UTICo) at a video conference, the ex-premier's defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko has said. 

“She will not take part in a video conference at least until she has an opportunity to consult with her U.S. lawyers,” Vlasenko told an Interfax-Ukraine reporter, while commenting on the fact that the Justice Ministry of Ukraine has received from the United States a package of documents including a request for questioning the ex-premier, and a time schedule of hearings of this case by a U.S. court.

According to Vlasenko, the abovementioned documents have not been passed to Tymoshenko as of the evening of Tuesday, August 7.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t seen Yulia Tymoshenko today, but yesterday she did not have this package,” Vlasenko said.

He also said he doubts that the U.S. court took into consideration the lawsuit filed by UTICo.

“I would like to stress that these are not U.S. lawyers [UTICo lawyers], these are Soviet emigrants that closely cooperate with the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office. They have been trying to file it from different sides, it has been rejected, as the lawsuit was unreasonable and it was filed against an improper person,” Vlasenko said.

He also said that, according to the Ukrainian legislation, certain investigatory actions via a video conference can be held only upon written consent of the person under investigation.

Earlier, the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper reported that it had copies of documents that were sent from the Main Justice Department in Kharkiv region to Head of Kominternivsky District Court of Kharkiv Vasyl Butsky for further passing to ex-premier Tymoshenko. The documents deal with the Universal Trading & Investment Co., Inc. against Yulia Tymoshenko case, which is being considered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The package of documents was sent to the Justice Ministry by the law firm of Peter Alan Joseph who represents Universal Trading & Investment Co., Inc. The package of documents includes questionnaire due to be filled in by the agency that will pass the documents to Tymoshenko.

UTICo demands that Tymoshenko return debts of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) Corporation in amount of $18.3 million.