Ukraine ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko jailed over gas deal
Baku, October 11 (AZERTAC). Former Ukraine leader Yulia Tymoshenko has been jailed for seven years.
A judge ruled the ex-prime minister had criminally exceeded her powers when she signed a gas deal with Russia in 2009.
Mrs Tymoshenko said the charges were politically motivated. She vowed to appeal against her sentence and fight for Ukraine "till her last breath".
The EU said it was disappointed with the verdict, and that Kiev`s handling of the case risked deep implications for its hopes of EU integration.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement the verdict showed justice was being applied selectively in politically motivated prosecutions.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who signed the deal with Mrs Tymoshenko, said he did not understand why she had been jailed.
"It is dangerous and counterproductive to cast the entire package of agreements into doubt," Mr Putin was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Russia`s foreign ministry had earlier said the ruling had a "clear anti-Russian subtext".
Riot police stood outside the court as thousands of supporters and opponents gathered. There have been minor clashes and some arrests.
In his ruling, Judge Rodion Kireyev said the former prime minister would also have to pay back 1.5bn hrivnas ($186m; £119m) lost by the state gas company as a result of the deal.
She has also been banned from political office for three years, with implications for her role in next year`s parliamentary elections.
As the verdict was read out, Mrs Tymoshenko spoke over the judge, saying she would fight to defend her honest name.
She said Ukraine had returned to the repression of Stalin`s 1937 Soviet Union, and accused her long-time rival President Viktor Yanukovych of orchestrating the trial.
She said she would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
"We will fight and defend my good name in the European court," she said. "We have to be strong and defend Ukraine from this authoritarianism."
After the judge finished the verdict, her supporters in the court shouted: "Shame, shame."
They believe Mr Yanukovych used the trial to get rid of her before the next presidential election.
Western officials had urged the president to reclassify the charges against her as administrative, not criminal.
AFP news agency later quoted Mr Yanukovych as saying the sentence was not final, and that the appeal court would have to decide whether to uphold it.
"Today the court took its decision in the framework of the current criminal code. This is not the final decision," he said.
Other news in this section
