Yulia Tymoshenko’s defense will not participate in the further consideration of the appeal of her October 11 conviction in the case involving gas deals with Russia, according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.

“I read [in court] a statement by Yulia Tymoshenko, who has decided to end her participation in this farce. This decision applied not only to Yulia Tymoshenko, this decision was made by her with regard to all the members of our side,” Serhiy Vlasenko told journalists after today’s hearing before the Kyiv Court of Appeals.

“The defense has done everything possible for this process to become a court. We demanded that all witnesses that weren’t questioned by the court of first instance be questioned by the appeals court, we demanded that documents be added to the case file, including gas contracts, we demanded that normal expert reviews be conducted. The court refused to do all of this. The last straw was yesterday’s disgraceful decision that destroys the foundations of criminal law,” Serhiy Vlasenko said.

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The lawyer is convinced that the absence of the defense will not prevent the judges from continuing to consider the appeal.

Yesterday, December 21, the Kyiv Court of Appeals ruled that the order of arrest issued by the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv following a 12-hour hearing in Yulia Tymoshenko’s jail cell in the prison’s medical unit was legal.