Ukraine court upholds Tymoshenko verdict

KIEV: A Ukrainian high court rejected an appeal yesterday by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko against her conviction for abuse of office, leaving her in jail and Ukraine's relations with the West severely strained.
Tymoshenko's defense lawyer said the ruling by a three-judge panel had been steered by President Viktor Yanukovich for political reasons.
“These findings have no relation to justice,” Serhiy Vlasenko told journalists after judge Olexander Yelfimov ruled that lower courts had delivered “correct decisions on the crimes of Tymoshenko.”
“This is a decision of Yanukovich to keep Tymoshenko in prison,” Vlasenko said.
Western leaders condemned the seven-year prison term meted out to the 51-year-old opposition leader in October as political persecution, and blocked strategic agreements on political association and a free-trade zone with the European Union.
But despite months of chiding by the European Union and the United States, Yanukovich has refused to act to secure her release. No one had expected her to be released yesterday.
Yanukovich did not immediately react to Vlasenko's comments, though in tough remarks last Friday he said he would not negotiate integration with the European Union at the price of allowing it to interfere in her case.
In Brussels, the European Union urged Ukraine to reform its judicial system “to redress the effects of selective justice” like that seen in Tymoshenko's case.
“We stress the importance for the Ukrainian authorities to take concrete steps to address the systemic problems of the judiciary,” Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said.
About 300 of her supporters gathered outside the courtroom, chanting slogans such as “Yulia — Freedom!” and “Keep convicts inside and get Yulia out!” They lowered a mock coffin into the ground outside the courtroom to symbolize the death of justice.
The continued incarceration of Tymoshenko — by far the most vibrant opposition figure on Ukraine's political landscape — is certain to figure as a major issue in an Oct. 28 legislative election.
Yanukovich's Party of the Regions goes into that election with the government highly unpopular over reforms that have increased taxes on small businesses and raised retirement ages, and it will have to work hard to retain its majority.