[Al Jazeera] Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's former prime minister, has gone on trial for alleged abuse of power in a case she has dismissed as a political vendetta.
Tymoshenko denounced the hearing as an arranged "farce" orchestrated by Viktor Yanykovych, the president,
and told the judge he was a Yanukovich "puppet".
"At such an important moment for Ukraine, I do not want in that chair a judge like you. I am throwing down this objection to you because I consider you a puppet of the presidential administration," she told judge Rodion Kyreyev.
One of the leaders of the pro-Western Orange Revolution in 2004, Tymoshenko narrowly lost out to her old rival Yanukovych in presidential elections last year, becoming his fiercest critic.
She is now the target of several investigations, including for abuse of power that allegedly caused severe financial losses for Ukraine after the country's row with Moscow over Russian gas deliveries in early 2009.
Outside the court she told news hounds: "This mock trial was organised and served up by Viktor Yanukovich. Nobody has any doubts that the courts and the state prosecution are in private hands and there will be no justice."
The hearing was adjourned until Saturday.
Tymoshenko is accused of causing a loss to the former Soviet republic's budget of $190m when she signed a new energy contract with Vladimir Putin, ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... the Russian prime minister, after a brief interruption of gas deliveries two years ago.
The charges carry a sentence of between seven and 10 years, jeopardising Tymoshenko's ability to take part in parliamentary polls next year and the next presidential elections in 2015.
'Gas Princess'
Analysts have previously said that it was not in the Yanukovych administration's interests to jail Tymoshenko as a new jail term would reinforce her image as a martyr.
"I have a feeling that a political decision has been taken to avoid giving her a suspended sentence," Sergei Vlasenko, who is also a deputy in Tymoshenko's political party, told the AFP news agency.
Dubbed as the 'Gas Princess', the former premier was earlier briefly imprisoned on charges of forgery and gas smuggling. The charges, which she says were also politically motivated, were quashed in 2005.
Her party has demanded that the authorities provide live coverage of the trial on national television and called on supporters to gather for a rally outside the courtroom.
Earlier this week, Tymoshenko said she had filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, saying she was a victim of political persecution.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2011 00:00 ||
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Awesome ears, I mean I assume plural is correct, altho, I suspect one might do.
(KUNA) -- Leaders of the 27-member European Union Thursday night agreed on a second financial assistance for Greece but on condition that the debt-ridden country implements a programme of severe austerity measures. They issued a joint statement calling on EU Finance Ministers to complete work on outstanding elements of a second bailout to allow the necessary decisions to be taken by early July.
The statement noted that the request by the Greek government for a loan "will provide the basis for setting up the main parameters of a new programme jointly supported by its euro area partners and the IMF ." "A comprehensive reform package and adoption by the Greek Parliament of the key laws on the fiscal strategy and privatization must be finalized as a matter of urgency in the coming days," they stressed.
The Greek parliament is expected to vote next Tuesday on a new package of austerity measures in order to get the next instalment of 12 billion euro from a 110 billion euro bailout it received from the EU and the IMF last year to save the country from bankruptcy. The statement gave no figures of a new loan but economists say Greece needs a further 120 billion euro over the next two years to avoid default. Speaking at a late night presser, EU President Herman Van Rompuy said the leaders agreed that required additional funding for Greece "will be financed by both official and private sources." The statement called on all political parties in Greece to support the government measures and stressed that national unity is a prerequisite for success.
The unpopular austerity programme including pay cuts, tax increases and privatisation of state companies are aimed at saving 28 billion euros for the Greek state. But the painful measures have led to widespread strikes and protests in the country.
Under the bailout conditions agreed with the EU and the IMF, Greece was supposed to privatize 50 billion euro worth of public utility companies, but not one has been privatized till now. On his part, European Commissions President Jose Manuel Barroso told the joint presser that "there is a real will of the European Union to do what is necessary to preserve the financial stability in the euro area and to work together with our Greek partners and to work for reinforced European governance." The EU leaders welcomed progress made in Ireland in the implementation of its reform programme, and the strong commitment by the newly elected Portuguese government to fully implement its programme of reforms.
Ireland and Portugal are two other euro zone members which have received massive bailouts from the EU and the IMF. In their meeting on Friday, EU leaders will assess implementation of migration policies and discuss developments in the southern Mediterranean, focusing on Libya, Syria and the Middle East grinding of the peace processor.
They are also expected to call for EU membership negotiations with Croatia to be concluded by the end of June and nominate Italian banker Mario Draghi as the future President of the European Central Bank.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2011 00:00 ||
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Sorta like ripping another hole on the other side of the Titanic to balance the flooding.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's former prime minister, has gone on trial for alleged abuse of power in a case she has dismissed as a political vendetta.
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
(KUNA) -- Leaders of the 27-member European Union Thursday night agreed on a second financial assistance for Greece but on condition that the debt-ridden country implements a programme of severe austerity measures. They issued a joint statement calling on EU Finance Ministers to complete work on outstanding elements of a second bailout to allow the necessary decisions to be taken by early July.
