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Ukraine

Ukraine ex-PM on trial over alleged abuse of power

Ukraine’s former prime minister and heroine of the 2004 Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko, goes on trial on Friday on charges of alleged abuse of power. 

Reuters/Gleb Garanich
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Tymoshenko is accused of causing a loss to the former Soviet republic’s budget of 133 million euros after signing a contract with Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin when gas

One of the leaders of the pro-Western Orange Revolution in 2004 and Ukraine's former prime minister, Tymoshenko narrowly lost to her old rival Yanukovych in presidential elections last year, becoming his fiercest critic.

deliveries were briefly stopped in early 2009.

The charges carry a sentence of between seven and 10 years and jeopardise her chances of standing in parliamentary polls next year and the next presidential elections in 2015.

Tymoshenko entered a packed courtroom to applause from her supporters. She has already denounced the trial as a “farce” and a “circus”. She claims the court hearing is an act of revenge by President Viktor Yanukovych.

Around 1,000 supporters  gathered outside central Kiev’s Pechersk Court, some holding white flags with red hearts, the symbol of Tymoshenko’s party, while scores of police, some wearing anti-riot gear, ringed the courthouse.

The charges are not the first to be brought against the ex-prime minister. In December, she was charged with misusing 320 million euros received by the government in 2009 for the sale of carbon credits.

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