For her part, Mrs Tymoshenko said the trial would not have been out of place in Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union after the presiding judge, Rodion Kireyev, ruled in a politically-tinged trial that she “criminally” exceeded her powers in 2009.
“The manner in which the trial has been conducted and today’s conviction are an example of the politicisation of the Ukrainian judiciary. Ukraine’s image as a country that is undertaking a fundamental pro-European transformation has been tarnished,” said the Polish foreign ministry, which currently holds the EU presidency.
Baroness Ashton, EU foreign policy chief, said the union would “reflect on its policies” towards Kiev.
Punishing her for what amounted to a political rather than a criminal act, Mr Kireyev ruled that Mrs Tymoshenko had illegally concluded a gas deal with Russia that had lost the Ukrainian treasury the equivalent of £121 million and damaged the country’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,” Judge Kireyev told the court in Kiev.
He ordered her to pay a fine equivalent to £121 million, barred her from holding office for the next three years and sentenced her to seven years in jail, the exact term that state prosecutors demanded. Continue reading and comment » | Andrew Osborn, Moscow | Sunday, October 11, 2011
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