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Yulia Tymoshenko Arrested: Ukraine's Ex-Prime Minister Picked Up During Trial
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia Aug 06, 2011 03:26pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | Anna Melnichuk |
| Media | Website - Huffington Post |
| News Date | Friday, August 5, 2011 09:25:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | KIEV, Ukraine — Acting on a judge's orders, police arrested former Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko during her abuse-of-office trial on Friday for violations of court procedures.
Her supporters in court, including national lawmakers, squabbled with riot police, trying to prevent them from driving her away in a prison car and shouting: "Shame! Shame!"
Dozens of Tymoshenko's supporters then gathered outside the court building in central Kiev and tried to block the road, but riot police pushed them aside.
The charismatic Tymoshenko, the country's top opposition leader, has criticized the trial as an attempt by President Viktor Yanukovych to bar her from elections and mocked the court.
She has refused to rise when addressing the court, as required, and routinely insulted the judge. Her supporters have repeatedly disrupted hearings.
Complying with the presiding judge's orders, police surrounded Tymoshenko and escorted her out of the courtroom. Hundreds of police officers surrounded the prison car as it forced its way slowly through the crowd of Tymoshenko supporters.
Later, Tymoshenko's ally, Serhiy Vlasenko, showed reporters what he described as a handwritten note from her describing her arrest as a "political repression."
The 50-year-old opposition leader is charged with abusing her powers by signing a natural gas import contract with Russia in 2009 that prosecutors claim was disadvantageous to Ukraine.
Tymoshenko insists she is innocent, arguing that the contract ended weeks of natural gas disruptions to Ukrainian and European consumers and that she was authorized to sign the deal as prime minister.
Experts in Ukraine and abroad believe the trial's real motive is to disqualify Tymoshenko from upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections by convicting her as a felon. |
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