Europe

Europe

Ukraine pres. positive about PM arrest

12 August 2011 00:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has voiced approval of a criminal court action, which has enabled the arrest of the countryâ€™s former Premier Yulia Tymoshenko, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The head of state has been urged by many Western governments -- who assert that Tymoshenkoâ€™s trial is â€™politically motivatedâ€™ -- to intervene in the case, Reuters reported on Thursday.

He has so far refused to interfere and has replied -- specifically strongly to Czech President Vaclav Klaus -- that "the Ukrainian court system was independent and unbiased."

Ukrainian prosecutors have charged Tymoshenko with abuse of office to force the state energy company Naftogaz to sign a gas supply contract with Russia in 2009.

She has been attending trial since June and has been kept in police custody since August 5 on the judgeâ€™s orders for "systematically violating courtroom proceedings."

Since the launch of the legal action, she has openly mocked the judge in the courtroom, refusing to stand, when addressing him and calling him â€™Yanukovichâ€™s puppet.â€™

"I cannot and will not interfere in the work of the Ukrainian courts," Yanukovich wrote in a letter to Klaus.

"None of todayâ€™s court hearings involving former state civil servants have been or can be politically motivated," he added.

Tymoshenko, however, has repeatedly denied the accusations.

She says the case against her has been â€œfabricated on the orders of Yanukovich,â€ who only narrowly defeated her in last yearâ€™s presidential election.

The 50-year-old former prime minister is Ukraineâ€™s leading opposition politician and the most formidable opponent of the pro-Russian Yanukovich, who says her alleged forcing of Naftogazâ€™s hand in clinching of the deal was a â€™betrayal of national interests.â€™

Having twice served as prime minister between 2005 and 2010, she is the most prominent figure in the dock in the country among over 400 officials, who are currently being prosecuted there.

Hundreds of her supporters have taken to the streets in downtown capital, Kiev since she was detained.