Timoshenko’s lawyers ask Supreme Court to annul verdict in gas case

On October 11, 2011, Timoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for having acted in excess of her powers which had resulted in damage to national interests. Timoshenko has also been barred from holding public positions for three years and has to pay a penalty of 189 million U.S. dollars in damages to Naftogaz Ukrainy. In late December 2011, Timoshenko was transferred from the investigation prison to a correctional facility in the eastern Kharkov region. Timoshenko is also facing new charges as former head of the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine. On October 20, 2011, the Prosecutor General’s Office cancelled the decision to close the criminal case against Timoshenko in which she was charged with embezzlement of more than 25 million hryvnia (more than 10 million U.S. dollars at the exchange rate of 1995-1997, when Timoshenko headed the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine), tax evasion in the amount of more than 20 million hryvnia by using a criminal financial scheme for settlements with the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine for natural gas and by concealing incomes from the operations of her offshore company Somolli Enterprise Limited from taxation. Timoshenko may also be incriminated in the MP Yevgeny Shcherban assassination case in which she is alleged to be the mastermind of the crime and ex-Prime Minister Pvel Lazarenko its perpetrator. On January 18, 2013, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office provided Timoshenko with notice informing her that she is suspected of involvement in the killing of MP Shcherban. Prosecutor General Pshonka said Timoshenko might be sentenced to life imprisonment in this case. “Pre-trial investigation materials showing that Timoshenko made out a contract for that murder together with Lazarenko have been gathered,” Pshonka said. According to Pshonka, Timoshenko and Lazarenko paid 2.8 million U.S. dollars for Shcherban’s assassination. Timoshenko is now undergoing medical treatment at a hospital in Kharkov. She fell ill on August 18, 2011, two weeks after her arrest. Physicians believe that Timoshenko has discal hernia. She had been complaining about pains in the back. Vlasenko said she is unable to get out of bed and the Kharkov doctors have been unable to make a diagnosis. “Yulia Timoshenko’s health has deteriorated and the reasons are unknown,” he said. But Timoshenko mistrusts Ukrainian medics and rejected their help. She insists that she be examined and treated by independent medics.