DUSHANBE, October 11, 2011, Asia-Plus — Former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko has been jailed for seven years. A judge ruled she had criminally exceeded her powers when she signed a gas deal with Russia in 2009.
The BBC reports Mrs. Tymoshenko said the charges against her were politically motivated. She vowed to appeal against her sentence and fight for Ukraine “till her last breath”.
The US and the EU have condemned the charges as selective prosecution of political opponents. European officials suggested that jailing Mrs. Tymoshenko would be a serious blow to the country”s hopes of integration with the European Union.
Riot police stood outside the court as thousands of supporters and opponents gathered. There have been minor clashes and some arrests.
Judge Rodion Kireyev said the former prime minister would also have to pay back 1.5bn hrivnas (equivalent to US$186m) lost by the state gas company as a result of the deal. She has also been banned from political office for three years.
As the verdict was read out, Mrs. Tymoshenko spoke over the judge, saying she would fight to defend “her honest name.” She said she would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The former Orange Revolution leader was accused of exceeding her authority while negotiating the gas agreement with Russia in 2009, which critics say was to Ukraine”s disadvantage.
Russia pipes gas to western Europe across Ukrainian territory and relations between Russia and Ukraine have long been dogged by disputes over transit fees and unpaid bills.
Mrs. Tymoshenko has been in custody for contempt of court since 5 August.
She was the heroine of the Western-leaning Orange Revolution – the sudden street protests that erupted after a fraudulent presidential election in 2004 – and was made prime minister shortly afterwards. But the next few years saw Ukraine”s revolution stagnate, and were marred by bickering between Mrs. Tymoshenko and her Orange allies, which paralyzed the country just as it was facing a deep economic crisis.
In 2010 the revolution was definitively reversed, when Mr. Yanukovych was elected president and Mrs. Tymoshenko forced into opposition.
Former president and one-time ally Viktor Yushchenko and others have testified against her in the court case.
