Murder charges to be brought against Tymoshenko
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
11.05.2012 10:40
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is due to be charged as an accessory to murder, heightening the international controversy over her ongoing imprisonment.
Ukraine's Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin has revealed that Tymoshenko is being charged in connection with the 1996 murder of former MP Yefhen Shcherban, who was one of the richest men in Ukraine.
Shcherban was shot down at Donetsk Airport by gunmen dressed as police officers.
Kuzmin claims that the gunmen have confessed to receiving payments from a bank account linked to Tymoshenko and the then prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko.
The new charges come after several European heads of state declined to attend a summit in Odessa last week, out of solidarity with Tymoshenko, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for “exceeding her powers” in a 2009 deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Tymoshenko's allies, including former Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, have argued that the sentence resembles “a simple case of political revenge.” by current Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich.
Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski was invited to Kiev by Yanukovich this week, after calling on Ukraine to amend its legal code so that politicians could not be tried under criminal law.
However, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz announced on Thursday that Komorowski will not take up the invitation unless there is a change for the better regarding Tymoshenko.
“If there will be no change in the situation, this invitation will not be accepted by the president,” she affirmed.
Owing to the new charges against Tymoshenko, such a visit seems further jeopardized.
The murder charges also look set to complicate the question of potential boycotts of matches that Ukraine will be hosting during the Euro 2012 tournament.
Poland is co-hosting the event next month.
Last week, Bronislaw Komorowski called upon European dignitaries not to go ahead with threats of a boycott of Ukrainian matches.
Similarly, former President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek said yesterday that that the concept of transfering more matches to Poland should be "out of the question." (nh)