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Ukraine’s Tymoshenko faces second criminal probe

25 December 2010 03:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Ukraine has begun a second criminal investigation into the affairs of the previous government led by Yulia Tymoshenko, the prosecutor general said on Friday, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
"Charges have not been drawn up yet but the investigation is determining those responsible," Viktor Pshonka told reporters.
Tymoshenko, now an opposition leader, earlier this month was charged with abuse of office. She called the move a political attack by the government of President Viktor Yanukovich.
She has been accused of misusing 380 million euros from the sale of carbon emission rights under the Kyoto Protocol. Tymoshenko has denied any wrongdoing.
On Friday, Pshonka said prosecutors were investigating another alleged misuse of funds by Tymoshenko’s cabinet -- the purchase of ambulance cars that were then used in her campaign during the February presidential election, which she lost.
Tymoshenko dismissed the new allegations as "absurd."
"Their goal... is to bar me from any elections," she told reporters outside the state prosecutor’s office where she arrived for questioning on the carbon case on Friday.
Tymoshenko, 50, was one of the leaders of the 2004 "Orange Revolution," a series of street protests that stripped Yanukovich of victory in a disputed presidential election.
Pro-Western politician Viktor Yushchenko then won the 2004 election with Tymoshenko’s support but relations between the two later soured, allowing Yanukovich to stage a comeback this year amid economic decline and public discontent.