In a politically-tinged verdict that is likely to badly damage the country’s relationship with the European Union and the United States, the presiding judge said Mrs Tymoshenko had “criminally” exceeded her powers in 2009 when she was the country’s prime minister.
More specifically, he said that she had illegally concluded a gas deal with Russia that had lost the Ukrainian treasury the equivalent of £118 million pounds and damaged Ukraine’s own gas industry.
"Tymoshenko... used her official powers to criminal ends and, acting consciously, committed actions which clearly exceeded her rights and powers which had heavy consequences," said the judge Rodion Kireyev.
Ordering her to pay back all the money to the state, he sentenced her to seven years in jail, the exact term that state prosecutors had asked for.
Dressed in a cream designer outfit, Mrs Tymoshenko kept calm but was visibly shaken by what she was hearing and made several interventions during the reading of the verdict to condemn the proceedings. » | Andrew Osborn, Moscow | Tuesday, October 11, 2011
