The early scheduling of the appeal by the State Treasury and Cabinet of Ministers in the case concerned alleged state guarantees on the obligations of the corporation United Energy Systems of Ukraine is part of the regime’s parliamentary election campaign propaganda, says lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko, according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.
"This means this case is completely and totally controlled by the current regime. The official position of the Cabinet of Ministers in this case is that there were no state guarantees for the obligations of UESU – and this is true. Azarov stated publicly that there were never any guarantees and there couldn’t be. This is all being done to discredit Yulia Tymoshenko with the aim of opening more fictitious criminal cases," said Serhiy Vlasenko.
The lawyer pointed out that the Economic Court of Kyiv ruled in the case on September 19 and the appeal hearing was already scheduled on September 21 even though the deadline for lodging the appeal was October 1. "Anyone involved in jurisprudence will tell you that such a speedy appointment happens in only one circumstance – when a case is controlled and when it needs to be heard soon. The court always waits until the end of the appeal deadline and then combines the complaints and considers them together," he said.
"We see this as the latest political manipulation. It’s part of the propaganda campaign for the elections. Something for the TV channels to talk about. The logic is absurd – the State of Ukraine represented by the Cabinet of Ministers says there are no guarantees, but the State of Ukraine represented by the SBU investigator says these guarantees exist and opens a criminal case against Yulia Tymoshenko. This, unfortunately, is how criminal cases in Ukraine are fabricated," he added.
The ex-premier’s lawyer also stressed that this case does not fall within the competence of economic courts. "The court had no right to hear this case. If we’re talking about state guarantees and relations between states, this is called public-legal relations that have nothing to do with economic relations. Imagine the following absurd situation: Greece gets a loan from Germany and then refuses to repay it. Will Germany go to the economic court in Athens and demand repayment"? he remarked.
"The tragedy of Ukraine is that Yanukovych has a savage desire to keep Yulia Tymoshenko in prison for another 5, 7,10, 2 years without any grounds for this and pay $400 million from the state budget or overturn this decision within a year in the court of cassation," he said.
