Former PM of Ukraine gets 7 years in jail
By Pavel Polityuk and Richard Balmforth | China Daily | Updated: 2011-10-12 08:06
KIEV, Ukraine - A Ukrainian court on Tuesday sentenced former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office in relation to a 2009 gas deal with Russia that she brokered, a case regarded widely in the West as politically orchestrated.
Judge Rodion Kireyev handed down the sentence - the maximum sought by state prosecutors - at the end of a three-month trial that has polarized society in the ex-Soviet republic and risks undermining Ukraine's relations with the West.
"The court has ... found Tymoshenko guilty ... and sentenced her to a prison term of seven years," he said. Her lawyers said they would appeal against the verdict.
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