Tymoshenko released from jail, but still faces charges (04/01/01)

Tymoshenko released from jail, but still faces charges

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Yulia Tymoshenko, the former vice prime minister arrested on various charges in mid-February, was released from jail on March 27 after a local Kyiv judge ruled that prosecutors had given insufficient substantiation for her incarceration.

The decision, while freeing her from the notorious Lukianivska Prison, does not dismiss the charges against her, which include bribery, smuggling, forgery and tax evasion, criminal acts that allegedly took place while she headed the gas and oil trading firm, United Energy Systems.

Judge Mykola Zamkovenko, who delayed the ruling for nearly six hours as he deliberated his decision while a packed courtroom of the Pechersk District Courthouse of Kyiv awaited his appearance, said the Procurator General's Office had presented no grounds to support assertions that Ms. Tymoshenko would not cooperate in an investigation and might flee abroad to avoid prosecution if she were not incarcerated.

"The Procurator General's Office failed to provide sufficient proof; they are not found in the materials of the case as well," said Judge Zamkovenko in his statement.

He explained that the public prosecutor's arguments that Ms. Tymoshenko evaded them and impaired the investigation when she did not appear for questioning on February 12-13 were not convincing because it was established that on those days she had reported in advance that she was ill. Ms. Tymoshenko was arrested on February 13 at her country cottage outside Kyiv. She was incarcerated after prosecutors escorted her into the city for questioning.

The judge, who in the past had a reputation as being friendly to the Kuchma administration because of previous rulings in support of the administration's points of view, said he had taken into account Ms. Tymoshenko's personality, her political prestige and how her release might ease tensions within society. He also said he had been guided by international precedents as well as Ukrainian law.

The Procurator General's Office protested the decision a day later and said it had appealed to the presidium of the Kyiv District Court. Deputy Procurator General Mykola Obikhod said that Judge Zamkovenko's ruling was "unfounded." While it awaits a court ruling, his office will now assign Ms. Tymoshenko another form of preventive detention, which could range from house arrest to a requirement that she not leave Kyiv.

Oleksander Moroz, a key member of an opposition force that has formed in the last months to oust President Leonid Kuchma, which Ms. Tymoshenko strongly supported, said that her release was due to a visit by rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The visit by the PACE delegation to review human rights efforts in Ukraine and the issues surrounding Tapegate and the Gongadze affair began on March 28. The rapporteurs were scheduled to meet with Ms. Tymoshenko, who has maintained that she is a political prisoner.

Meanwhile, President Leonid Kuchma, while on a working visit to the Donetsk region, told Ukrainian television that he would not get involved in the matter. "I am neither a judge nor a procurator and have no right to interfere," he said.

Several hours after the decision, Ms. Tymoshenko, looking weary but happy, appeared outside the Lukianivska Prison, where she was greeted by hundreds of supporters. Also on hand was National Deputy Oleksander Turchynov, the parliamentary faction leader of the Batkivschyna Party she heads, and Ivan Khmara, who leads the Republican Conservative Party and has staunchly supported her calls to oust the Kuchma administration.

State militia were very visible at the scene and nearly caused a confrontation with some in the crowd when they forcefully cleared a path for Ms. Tymoshenko to enter a waiting ambulance for a journey to a hospital where she was expected to undergo an examination and treatment for chronic stomach problems and other medical ailments. According to the local state militia headquarters in Kyiv, officials decided on a heavy law enforcement presence after the office received an anonymous phone call stating that there would be an attack on Ms. Tymoshenko.

Her attorney said Ms. Tymoshenko would remain in the hospital for the next few days recovering from her six-week ordeal before making any public statements. "She is still not fully cognizant of what has happened," explained Viktor Shvets.

Her ex-boss, Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko, hailed the news of her release and said the court had made a proper decision. "In doing so the court demonstrated its strength rather than a weakness," said Mr. Yuschenko.

Ms. Tymoshenko continues to deny all the charges against her and has stated repeatedly that they were conjured to neutralize her efforts to cleanse the gas and oil sector of corruption and bring to light the shadowy dealings of the business oligarchies she has said run the country.

Ms. Tymoshenko worked as first vice prime minister with responsibility for the energy portfolio for just over a year before she was fired by President Kuchma for what he said was her ineffectiveness in the post as well as her shady past. She had long been critical of the president and in 1997-1998 had been prime minister of a shadow government when she was a member of the now defunct Hromada Party of Pavlo Lazarenko. Mr. Lazarenko today sits in a U.S. jail on charges of money laundering there and in Switzerland.

Ukrainian authorities want to try Mr. Lazarenko on charges of large-scale graft and embezzling. The charges that are being leveled at Ms. Tymoshenko are for the most part based on her relationship with Mr. Lazarenko. They include allegations that she bribed a high-ranking general in the Russian armed forces, that she regularly paid Mr. Lazarenko when he was prime minister of Ukraine, and also that she attempted to secretly move some $25,000 out of the country into Russia in 1998 before she was apprehended at the Dnipropetrovsk airport.

| Home Page |