UKRAINE: Jailed former PM Yulia Tymoshenko starts hunger strike to protest fake election, her lawyer says

Record ID: 340939

  • Title: UKRAINE: Jailed former PM Yulia Tymoshenko starts hunger strike to protest fake election, her lawyer says
  • Date: 29th October 2012
  • Summary: KHARKIV, UKRAINE (OCTOBER 29, 2012) (REUTERS) YULIA TYMOSHENKO SUPPORTER WALKING WITH OPPOSITION "BATKYVSCHINA" POLITICAL PARTY FLAG OUTSIDE HOSPITAL WHERE YULIA TYMOSHENKO IS HELD TYMOSHENKO SUPPORTERS OUTSIDE HOSPITAL SIGN "CENTRAL CLINICAL HOSPITAL" EXTERIOR OF HOSPITAL POLICEMEN OUTSIDE HOSPITAL TYMOSHENKO SUPPORTERS OUTSIDE HOSPITAL TYMOSHENKO SUPPORTER HOLDING HER PH
  • Embargoed: 13th November 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5YDQHX0GQQAOM0APH28N84IW6
  • Story Text: Ukraine's jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko launched a hunger strike on Monday (October 29) to protest against alleged vote-rigging in favour of President Viktor Yanukovich's party in a weekend election, her lawyer said.
    Exit polls and partial results from Sunday's vote showed Yanukovich's Party of the Regions would, with help from long-time allies, win more than half the seats in the 450-member assembly.
    The united opposition bloc, which includes Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, was second with about 100 seats, according to preliminary estimates.
    But Tymoshenko, who had warned before the vote that the Regions' victory would lead to "dictatorship", does not accept the figures, her lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko said at a news conference in the city of Kharkiv where Tymoshenko is being treated for back trouble in a state-run hospital.
    "If I were with you now and had an opportunity to act freely I would without doubt call on you to stage an indefinite civil disobedience action and we together would show these forgers their place as we've done many times in the past," her lawyer quoted Tymoshenko's statement. "But now, being behind bars, I cannot call on you to come out to the square because I cannot guarantee that such gatherings will be peaceful and well-organised so I do all I can do under such circumstances - I declare hunger strike to protest against fake elections and illegitimate parliament."
    A court last October sentenced Tymoshenko, 51, to seven years in prison, ruling she had abused her powers as prime minister when she forced through a 2009 gas deal with Russia. She has denied any wrongdoing.
    The European Union and the United States have condemned her jailing as an example of selective justice and Brussels has shelved landmark deals on free trade and political association with Kiev over the issue.
    Tymoshenko's allegations of electoral fraud on Monday contrasted with other opposition politicians, including those from her own bloc, who were reserved in their judgment.
    Western observers, who called the election a step backwards for Ukraine, criticised misuse of administrative resources, biased media coverage and opaque campaign finances rather than the voting and counting process.
    Tymoshenko, a leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution which derailed Yanukovich's first bid for the presidency, was detained in August 2011 and has been in hospital since May after complaining about chronic back problems.
    She faces tax evasion and fraud charges in a separate trial, delayed because of her poor health, while challenging the initial conviction in the European Court of Human Rights.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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