Tymoshenko's husband seeks asylum in the Czech Republic

[News_Editor]

Tymoshenko's husband seeks asylum in the Czech Republic

2012-01-07 10:30:13 GMT+7 (ICT)

PRAGUE (BNO NEWS) -- The husband of jailed Ukrainian opposition leader and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has asked for political asylum in the Czech Republic, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Friday.

Oleksandr Tymoshenko, who is currently residing in the Czech Republic, submitted the application in late December. According to reports, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said Tymoshenko's request for asylum will likely be granted.

Yulia Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year term for abuse of power in connection with a 2009 gas deal with Russia. She was accused of illegally forcing state energy company Naftogaz to sign a gas supply contract with Russian gas company Gazprom in 2009, which the state says required approval of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Tymoshenko's husband, Oleksandr, and her daughter, Yevheniya, were the defenders of the former prime minister in the case. In December 2011, Tymoshenko's daughter, Yevheniya Carr, changed her last name to Tymoshenko in support of her mother.

Tymoshenko's daughter is currently not planning to ask for political asylum in another country. "Zhenia [Yevheniya Carr] - not yet. But if the pressure on her grows, and if the government goes mad and starts persecuting not only the husband, but also the daughter of Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko], we will respond properly," Tymoshenko's defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko was quoted as saying.

Last week, the Ukrainian opposition leader was transferred to a prison to serve her jail term. She was moved from a detention center in the capital of Kiev, where she had been held since early August, to a prison in the eastern city of Kharkiv.

Tymoshenko has claimed her trial was politically motivated and an attempt by President Viktor Yanukovych, who narrowly beat her in the presidential election in February 2010, to bar her from future elections. The international community has largely condemned her trial.

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