A Ukrainian appeals court on Friday upheld the guilty verdict and seven-year jail sentence imposed on former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko over abuse-of-office charges in a case that has soured Ukraine's ties with the West. The ruling suggests Tymoshenko, an opposition leader whose party is one of the key contenders in the October 2012 parliamentary election, is unlikely to go free in the near future.
"The court has left the (original) ruling unchanged," a spokeswoman for the appeals court said. Tymoshenko, the fiercest opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich, was sentenced in October for overstepping her powers in forcing through a gas deal with Russia in 2009. The European Union this week put off signing agreements on political association and free trade with Ukraine, citing Tymoshenko's case as an example of selective justice. Tymoshenko, who has denied any wrong doing, had boycotted the appeal trial calling it biased. She has filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights which plans to fast-track it.
In a statement published by her political party Batkivschyna, Tymoshenko said she would continue her activities from behind bars. "No matter where I am - in or out of prison - all my life is dedicated to the idea of changing this evil course of history and restoring every Ukrainian's self-belief and trust to his or her state," she said.
Tymoshenko, 51, twice served as prime minister after leading the 2004 "Orange Revolution" which ruined Yanukovich's first bid for the presidency. Yanukovich, who beat her in the 2010 presidential run-off, said this week he had nothing to do with her case and it was up to the courts and lawmakers to decide Tymoshenko's fate. Ukraine's parliament, which is dominated by Yanukovich's supporters, on Thursday voted against considering an amendment that would have struck her alleged offence from the criminal code.