Iulia Timoshenko Photo: Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia
The former head of the Ukrainian government, Yulia Tymoshenko, was released from detention on bail by a Kyiv court on Friday, pending a corruption trial that will have to clarify whether she offered sums of money to some parliamentarians to influence votes in the legislature, AFP and DPA agencies report, quoted by Agerpres.
Yulia Tymoshenko, 65 and a prominent figure in Ukrainian politics for nearly three decades, rose to prominence during the 2004 “Orange Revolution” that brought pro-Westerners to power in Kiev. Despite her pro-Western orientation, Yulia Tymoshenko is currently an opponent of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
She rejected the accusations of corruption, which she considers to be politically motivated and intended to eliminate her from political life.
Twice prime minister after 2005, Yulia Tymoshenko spent three years in prison between 2011 and 2014, following a conviction for “abuse of power”, after losing the presidential elections to the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych, a sentence considered by the Ukrainian opposition and its Western supporters to be a politically motivated conviction.
Now back in detention, a Kiev court decided on Friday to release her pending her new trial, in exchange for a bail equivalent to around 655,000 euros. She is also prohibited from leaving the Ukrainian capital and must surrender her passport.
New corruption scandal in Ukraine. Yulia Tymoshenko, targeted by the investigation, writes the Kiev press
Iulia Tymoshenko is accused in this file of having discussed with another parliamentarian a vote-buying system in the legislature, mentioning payments of 10,000 dollars per month. In front of the court, she described the accusations as a “provocation” and claimed that the National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU) “executed a political order” to discredit her.
She also said in front of the court that she cannot pay her bail, as her bank accounts are blocked. According to the Ukrainian media, Iulia Tymoshenko has five days to pay the bail.
Political activity has been largely suspended in Ukraine since the war with Russia began nearly four years ago, as martial law imposed by President Zelensky bans political campaigns and elections as the country focuses on the war effort.
However, a series of corruption scandals have recently rocked Ukraine and reached even Zelensky's closest circle, where his influential chief of staff, Andrii Iermak, was forced to resign in November.
