Yulia Tymoshenko arrested (02/18/01)

Yulia Tymoshenko arrested

Supporters say move is political action

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's procurator general arrested Yulia Tymoshenko on February 13 on charges that she offered Pavlo Lazarenko bribes totaling nearly $80 million while he was the prime minister of Ukraine.

Ms. Tymoshenko, 40, who achieved substantial success in energy reforms in the last year as vice prime minister in charge of the energy sector in the reform-minded government of Viktor Yuschenko, was recently dismissed by President Leonid Kuchma, after an investigation was opened against her by the Procurator General's Office in conjunction with her past business activities.

Ms. Tymoshenko was arrested after officers of the Procurator General's Office traveled to her estate outside Kyiv and escorted her back to the city for further interrogation into charges that she took part in illegal smuggling operations, forgery and bribery. She was charged with large-scale bribery, specifically for depositing a total of more that $79.8 million in 1996-1997 in foreign accounts held by Mr. Lazarenko.

Ms. Tymoshenko was a primary antagonist of the Kuchma administration during her 13 months as vice prime minister. She worked feverishly to reform the energy sector she oversaw, while persistently charging that Mr. Kuchma's cronies were working to halt her efforts and remove her from her post.

On the evening of her arrest, Oleksander Turchynov, a political colleague and leader of the parliamentary faction of the Batkivschyna Party that Ms. Tymoshenko founded, said her arrest is strictly a political action.

"The Batkivschyna Party and parliamentary faction believe that the actions of the dying criminal regime are a severe and cynical provocation against the leaders of the opposition, with the aim of frightening Ukraine," said Mr. Turchynov.

In recent months Ms. Tymoshenko had become closely associated with the campaign to remove Mr. Kuchma from office in conjunction with his alleged involvement in the Gongadze affair and "Tapegate." On February 9 she was one of the founding members of the Forum for National Salvation, a group of political organizations that is pressing for the resignation of the president.

Mr. Turchynov said the president and the business oligarchs in the energy sector that Ms. Tymoshenko had threatened have fabricated charges against her and her husband because she had refused to keep silent and had spoken the truth about the situation in Ukraine.

"Ms. Tymoshenko absolutely rejects the charges," stated Mr. Turchynov, "She categorically rejects the charges that she bribed Lazarenko and considers this political repression."

The charges that resulted in the arrest of Ms. Tymoshenko, who became known as the "Iron Lady" during her time in the Yuschenko government, were in addition to other investigations previously begun by the Procurator General's Office, including allegations of bribing a Russian military official, and an alleged attempt to smuggle $25 million to Russia three years ago.

Ms. Tymoshenko's husband, Oleksander, has sat in a Kyiv prison for the last five months on similar bribery charges. A Kyiv court twice has denied him bail on the grounds that since he has a business, United Energy Systems, that is registered in Great Britain he could leave the country and not return.

Assistant Procurator General Mykhailo Obikhod, who is the acting director of the law enforcement body while its director, Mykhailo Potebenko, remains on a leave of absence, said Ms. Tymoshenko was arrested because of new evidence that led to the additional charge. He explained that the order to arrest her was made after taking into consideration the seriousness of the latest discoveries along with the fact that she had refused to come in for questioning.

Ms. Tymoshenko's arrest took those close to her by surprise, first, because, she had already agreed to an order not to leave Kyiv and, second, because she was suffering from the flu and under a doctor's care. In Ukraine arrests on non-violent charges are made after a person returns to health.

Ms. Tymoshenko's lawyer, Viktor Shvets, said on February 14 that he would file a claim in Ukraine's Supreme Court against the warrant issued. He said that because she was ill with the flu and was under a doctor's care, his client had every right to refuse to submit to questioning.

"Against her will, Ms. Tymoshenko was taken by investigators of the Procurator General's Office to their headquarters, where she was taken into custody," explained Mr. Shvets.

Before entering politics, Ms. Tymoshenko was the president of United Energy Systems, a gas and oil trading firm that grew to be one of the largest businesses in Ukraine under the protection of Mr. Lazarenko. In 1997, after Mr. Kuchma dismissed Mr. Lazarenko, whom he suspected of widespread corruption, Ms. Tymoshenko became a member of the Hromada Party founded by the ex-prime minister and a leading opponent of Mr. Kuchma. Mr. Lazarenko has been living in a United States detention facility since being arrested while attempting to enter the country illegally about two years ago. He is suspected of money-laundering in the United States and in Switzerland.

The Forum for National Salvation, the anti-Kuchma organization that Ms. Tymoshenko helped establish four days prior to her arrest, issued a statement on February 14 criticizing the move by the Procurator General's Office and demanding her release from custody.

The organization, which includes such leading opponents of the Kuchma administration as Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz, Cherkasy Mayor Volodymyr Oliinyk, former chairman of the National Democratic Party Anatolii Matvienko, Viktor Shyshkyn, Ukraine's first procurator general, and Serhii Holovatii, once a minister of justice in the Kuchma administration, called the arrest an effort to remove a political opponent.

"We can understand the authorities - they are afraid of Tymoshenko, afraid even now, when an outright oppositionist remains behind bars on a falsified case," reads the document.

| Home Page |