Yulia sentenced

[1HappyGuy 45]

I found a pretty good video on You Tube about the trial of Yulia. It is kind of long, 24 minutes, but seems to be pretty accurate according to the things my wife said while it was going on. If you have the time take a look at it. I think you will see that judicial proceedings in Ukraine have dropped down significantly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQlt4W2PJ1I

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I found a pretty good video on You Tube about the trial of Yulia. It is kind of long, 24 minutes, but seems to be pretty accurate according to the things my wife said while it was going on. If you have the time take a look at it. I think you will see that judicial proceedings in Ukraine have dropped down significantly.

That looks bad. I saw this coming as did a lot of people but I thought there might be a slight chance Yanko wouldn't be such a pr*ck. He's exceeded my expectations time wise. Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. All three of those countries are in or going to be in for a long miserable journey if something doesn't change. I just hope the EU does't cave in like I think they will and sign that pact with Ukraine.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-ex-pm-tymoshenkos-jail-sentence-upheld-162240082.html

Ukrainian ex-PM Tymoshenko's jail sentence upheld

By MARIA DANILOVA | AP – 3 hrs ago

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday kept former Premier Yulia Tymoshenko in jail on charges of abuse of office, defying renewed Western pressure to release the country's top opposition leader.

The Kiev Appeals Court upheld a lower court's guilty verdict and seven-year sentence for Tymoshenko, 50, in a decision her top aide called President Viktor Yanukovych's "personal vengeance."

Tymoshenko was convicted in October of overstepping her authority while negotiating a natural gas contract with Russia in 2009.

The U.S. and the European Union have sharply criticized Tymoshenko's imprisonment as politically motivated and demanded her release. The EU this week refused to sign a key partnership deal with Kiev over the Tymoshenko case.

Yanukovych, Tymoshenko's longtime foe, said the courts and law enforcement agencies were independent and he would not intervene.

Tymoshenko's top ally, Oleksandr Turchynov, accused Yanukovych of trying to get rid of his main political rival.

"This verdict is Yanukovych's personal vengeance against Yulia Volodymyrovna Tymoshenko as his main opponent — stronger, more powerful," Turchynov said, according to his office. "After this decision, the president becomes a dictator of a criminal regime."

Tymoshenko has spent more than four months in a Kiev jail after being charged with contempt of court during her trial. She claims to have developed severe back and skin problems while in custody and accuses the authorities of denying her proper medical care.

Prosecutors spokesman Yuri Boichenko said it was unclear whether Tymoshenko would now be sent to a provincial prison to serve her term or would remain in Kiev while a separate case that has been opened against her is investigated.

Germany's top human rights official said the Kiev court missed an opportunity to uphold the rule of law.

"The verdict against Yulia Tymoshenko is another setback to Ukraine's path of rapprochement with the European Union, which is also a union of values," Markus Loening said in a statement. "Among those values is that political differences must be dealt with through political competition."

Tymoshenko said Thursday she would boycott all legal proceedings in Ukraine and has lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights, claiming it is pointless to seek justice in Ukraine as long as Yanukovych is in power. However, that process could take months and it is unclear if a decision by the Strasbourg-based court would be legally binding in Ukraine.

Tymoshenko's office says that if the Strasbourg court were to rule that Tymoshenko's right to a fair trial was violated, she would have to be released from jail.

But some independent legal experts have said that while Ukraine's Supreme Court would be required to review the case, it wouldn't necessarily be obliged to overrule the decision of the lower courts.

[1HappyGuy 45]

Again, no surprise here. I hear that the investigation on the second charge is being conducted in her jail cell without legal representation present.

Can you hear the big hammer coming down on democracy in Ukraine?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Again, no surprise here. I hear that the investigation on the second charge is being conducted in her jail cell without legal representation present.

Can you hear the big hammer coming down on democracy in Ukraine?

The hammer came down the day that Kremlin supported criminal was elected. Ukraine is screwed.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-ex-pm-tymoshenko-moved-prison-121153100.html

Ukraine ex-PM Tymoshenko moved to remote prison

Reuters – 15 hrs ago

KIEV (Reuters) - Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of office, has been moved to prison from a detention centre where she has been held since early August, the state penitentiary service said on Friday.

Tymoshenko's transfer to a remote location suggests she is unlikely to go free any time soon despite pressure from the European Union, which called her trial politically motivated. The EU put off the signing of a major trade and political agreement with Ukraine this month over the case.

Tymoshenko is the fiercest opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich, who narrowly beat her in a presidential run-off in February 2010.

She served as prime minister after helping to lead the 2004 "Orange Revolution" protests, which overturned an election victory for Yanukovich in his first bid for the presidency.

A court sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison in October, saying she had exceeded her powers when forcing through a 2009 gas deal with Russia as prime minister. Tymoshenko denies wrongdoing. She lost an appeal against the verdict a week ago.

"Tymoshenko has been moved to a prison in the Kharkiv region," the state penitentiary service said in a statement.

The prison is located about 500 kilometers (300 miles) away from the capital Kiev where Tymoshenko had been in detention and where her supporters held regular rallies.

The European Union, which had planned to initial agreements on political association and free trade with Ukraine at a summit this month, put off the signing and cited Tymoshenko's case as an example of selective justice in the former Soviet republic.

"The EU reiterates its concern about the risks of politically-motivated justice in Ukraine, of which the Tymoshenko trial is the most striking example," a spokesman for EU Foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Friday.

"Given the strong international concern already surrounding this case, we call on the authorities to ensure that decisions on the detention conditions of Mrs Tymoshenko are taken transparently and in line with relevant international standards. The EU is urgently seeking further clarification from the Ukrainian authorities."

Yanukovich has refused to intervene and the parliament, dominated by his supporters, has turned down several proposals to remove her offence from the criminal code.

On Friday, Yanukovich issued a decree cancelling Freedom Day celebrations on November 22, a holiday introduced in 2005 to mark the "Orange Revolution" anniversary, provoking angry reaction from Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party.

It said in a statement that moving Tymoshenko to a prison and cancelling the holiday on the same day was "an act of final, cynical and public destruction of the ideals of democracy, freedom and independence."

Tymoshenko's lawyers say she hopes the European Court for Human Rights, where she has filed a case against Ukraine, will exonerate her. The court said this month it would fast-track the case.

Tymoshenko, 51, has been suffering from back pains in the last few weeks and cannot walk, according to her lawyers who have said she should not be moved from the detention centre on health grounds.

But the penitentiary service said she was fit to move.

"Before departure, Tymoshenko was examined by doctors who stated that her health allowed her to be moved," it said, adding that Tymoshenko travelled in a "comfortable" van.

Edited December 31, 2011 by Why_Me

[slim 1,530]

Shouldn't be too long before she gets "a strange and fatal illness."

[1HappyGuy 45]

Shouldn't be too long before she gets "a strange and fatal illness."

I think they are waiting to get the second trumped up charge filed and convicted before she succumbs to a mysterious illness.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/czechs-grant-asylum-tymoshenkos-husband-153237284.html

Czechs grant asylum to Tymoshenko's husband

By KAREL JANICEK | AP – 14 hrs ago

PRAGUE (AP) — The husband of jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic on Friday, and a lawyer said he left his country because its government has launched a criminal investigation against him.

Last year, the Czech Republic angered Ukraine by granting asylum to another ally of Yulia Tymoshenko's, and Friday's decision to do that with her husband is likely further strain the countries' relations.

Czech Interior Ministry spokesman Vladimir Repka said his ministry approved the application submitted by Oleksandr Tymoshenko, but refused to provide details about the decision.

Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's top opposition leader and a former presidential candidate, was sentenced to seven years in jail in October in a trial the West has condemned as politically motivated. She has reportedly been in poor health and denied medical care while locked up in a Kiev, Ukraine, prison before she was taken to a remote prison colony in the city of Kharkiv. In December, the European Union balked at signing a landmark cooperation agreement with Ukraine over the jailing of Tymoshenko.

In Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko's lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, said in remarks broadcast Friday on Russia's NTV television that Oleksandr Tymoshenko had asked for asylum in the Czech Republic because he is being targeted in an ongoing probe into his wife's business activities when she owned a top Ukraine's energy company. Vlasenko said Oleksandr requested asylum because a criminal investigation has been launched against him in Ukraine in an attempt to increase pressure on his jailed wife.

A year ago, the republic granted political asylum to Ukraine's former Economics Minister Bohdan Danylyshin, one of Tymoshenko's allies, who was charged with abuse of office in his country. The move strained relations between the two countries.

In May, Ukraine expelled two employees at the military section at the Czech Republic's Embassy in Kiev, accusing them of espionage. Czech officials said that was probably prompted by Danylyshin's case.

However, Czech Interior Minister Jan Kubice said Friday that he doesn't believe the decision granting Oleksandr Tymoshenko asylum will harm his country's relations with Ukraine. Kubice said Tymoshenko applied for asylum several months ago.

Jakub Kulhanek, an analyst at Prague's Association International Affairs, said the decision is in line with the Czech foreign policy that supports opposition movements in Cuba, Belarus, Maynmar and elsewhere. But he also said Tymoshenko, a businessman, "can hardly be called a typical political dissident."

Kulhanek said he doesn't expect serious retaliation from Ukraine, which has been trying to consolidate its relations with the European Union.

At the same time, Kulhanek said, it is in the EU's interest that Ukraine is a stable country and the bloc is trying to avoid steps that would push Kiev back into Russia's orbit.

According to the Czech register of companies, a man called Oleksandr Tymoshenko is listed as a co-owner of International Industrial Projects SRO, a company based in the northern Czech city of Usti nad Labem.

Tymoshenko's husband had attended her trial in October and may also have sought asylum in the Czech Republic for personal reasons, including the ability to publicize her case.

Earlier Friday, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg confirmed Tymoshenko's husband had applied for asylum, and that ministry said in a statement that it wants to maintain good relations with Ukraine.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/ukraines-yanukovich-refuses-relent-tymoshenko-case-151955451.html

Ukraine's Yanukovich refuses to relent in Tymoshenko case

By Richard Balmforth | Reuters – 5 hrs ago

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich appeared on Sunday to rule out any prospect of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko being freed, saying those responsible for signing a 2009 gas deal with Russia on "enslaving" terms should be punished.

Tymoshenko, in a statement from prison where she is serving a seven-year jail sentence, called on all opposition forces to unite to defeat Yanukovich's Regions Party in a parliamentary election next October.

Her jailing last October for abuse of office, linked to the 2009 gas contract she brokered as prime minister, has led to a crisis in relations between the ex-Soviet republic and the West.

The United States and the European Union say the trial was politically motivated; in December the EU withheld completion of agreements on political association and a free trade zone with Ukraine in protest over her jailing.

Tymoshenko's trial and conviction are widely seen as a settling of scores between rival groups in the ex-Soviet republic.

Tymoshenko was a key player in the "Orange Revolution" street protests in 2004-2005 which overturned Yanukovich's first bid for the presidency. He made a comeback and narrowly defeated her in a run-off vote in February 2010.

Despite the EU pressure, justice officials have opened fresh criminal cases against Tymoshenko and she has been moved from police detention in the capital, Kiev, to a remote prison camp in Kharkiv, some 500 km (310 miles) to the east.

The Ukrainian leadership says the 2009 gas deal saddled the country with an exorbitant price for gas and committed it to importing volumes of Russian gas it does not need.

"Ukraine has become hostage to enslaving gas agreements ... which have caused the country huge losses, billions of losses. We have been left with a huge external debt. Those who, regardless of their office, pushed Ukraine to the abyss must bear responsibility before the Ukrainian people," Yanukovich told a ceremony on Sunday.

Several thousand opposition supporters used a rally in the centre of Kiev, marking the day when eastern Ukraine joined the west of the country, to protest at the government's policies and call for Tymoshenko to be freed.

In a statement read out to the crowd, Tymoshenko called on all opposition parties to unite in a single democratic opposition force. "One team - one victory - this is the only slogan with which the opposition should arm itself today," she said.

In what might prove to be a significant development in the coming months, several opposition parties later issued a statement saying they would unite to field a single candidate in single-mandate constituencies at next October's election.

These will account for half the seats in the Ukraine parliament, the other half coming from party list voting.

The popularity of Yanukovich's Regions Party is sagging at present, and a united opposition might make it difficult for the Regions Party to re-establish a stranglehold on parliament after the election.

Tymoshenko's daughter told Reuters last week that her mother's life was "at risk" in the Kharkiv jail where she is being held because of her deteriorating health.

She said her mother had been unable to get up unaided since early November because of recurring back pain.

[Tanya and Barry 59]

"Before departure, Tymoshenko was examined by doctors who stated that her health allowed her to be moved," it said, adding that Tymoshenko travelled in a "comfortable" van.

Marshutka?

There is a reson she was sent to the Kharkiv region. There is little support for her there...

[slim 1,530]

Tymoshenko travelled in a "comfortable" van.

Marshutka?