Ex-Prime Minister Tymoshenko
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| Yulia Tymoshenko |
Yulia Tymoshenko, Orange Revolution heroine and former Prime Minister of Ukraine, is believed to be in very serious health condition, according to her lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko. Tymoshenko, arrested, jailed and convicted on fraudulent charges, and being harassed with additional non-credible charges (such as prosecutors relying on alleged conspiracy evidence that suddenly came up almost a generation after the crime and conveniently during the tenure of her political opponents whom Tymoshenko has accused of prosecutorial machinations) under harsh confinement conditions for one and one-half years, including negligent medical treatment for her serious illness. The Party of Commons is praying for her survival and freedom.
Updated on Jan. 24th, 2013: Yulia Tymoshenko's Appeal, which basically is her defense of murder accusations, are published in the comments section of this post (the Fair Use Doctrine and Tymoshenko's expressed permission on her site are applicable).
[revised on 1/24/2013]
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Comments
-- Appeal by Yulia Tymoshenko
PART I
I am appealing to everyone who believes me, who supports me in Ukraine and abroad.
I know that you’re putting your hope in me, trusting that together we will free Ukraine from criminal occupation and bring it back to life. I believe this too. I won’t let you down. I have the strength to withstand all the inhuman humiliation, overcome and stand by you to preserve a European and independent Ukraine, to make the changes the country needs.
I know that you are as shocked as I am by the new charges announced by the Prosecutor General on January 18, 2013 regarding my participation in the tragic murder of Yevhen Shcherban and illegally obtained financial state guarantees for UESU corporation.
Rest assured that these charges are the agony and hysterics of Yanukovych, who knows that all the previous criminal cases against me fell apart and were empty political dirt, and that after the decision of the European Court of Human Rights he will have to release me.
He is afraid of this because he knows that he will lose the 2015 presidential election to me and will lose everything that he amassed illegally through this "intolerable" work.
He is afraid that after the elections Ukraine will no longer be his private property. He is afraid that he will have to account for all his transgressions, the violence and kleptomania, for the collapse of the foreign and domestic policies of Ukraine.
He drove himself into a corner and continues to make tragic mistakes.
The latest is the idea to accuse me of killing Yevhen Shcherban. Such a blatant lie won’t be hard to refute in international courts. It will be in international ones, because everyone knows the price of courts, prosecutors and investigators in Ukraine – no sense talking about this once again.
I want to clearly state that UESU, which I ran until late 1996, never obtained financial state guarantees from Ukraine. Such guarantees, according to the law, are given exclusively by collegiate decision of the government and are reflected in the law on the budget of Ukraine. The government never made a collegiate decision to provide financial guarantees to UESU corporation and such a debt was never reflected in the law on the budget of Ukraine. This is easy to check, and thus the criminal case against me will be recognized as an obvious fabrication.
I also want to clearly and unequivocally state that I had nothing to do with the tragic murder of Yevhen Shcherban in 1996, and this will be proved in international courts and courts in other countries.
Yevhen Shcherban was one of five founders of the corporation Industrial Union of the Donbass (IUD), which controlled hundreds of enterprises privatized illegally in the 1990s. The other owners of IUD were Alexander Momot, Akhat Bragin and Rinat Akhmetov. The fifth shadow co-owner of IUD was the then young politician Viktor Yanukovych, who today is president of Ukraine.
Yevhen Shcherban was the undisputed leader of this group, a member of parliament and leader of the Liberal Party of Ukraine. Within a short time, three of the owners of IUD were killed.
Yevhen Shcherban and Alexander Momot were shot in Donetsk and Akhat Bragin was killed at a Donetsk stadium. After this, all the assets of IUD, estimated to be worth billions of dollars, went to Viktor Yanukovych and Rinat Akhmetov. After the tragic murder of Yevhen Shcherban, Viktor Yanukovych was able to become governor of Donetsk. The leaders of the gang that killed Yevhen Shcherban were immediately eliminated in the Donetsk penal colony, which at the time was overseen by prosecutors Kuzmin and Pshonka. What more is there to explain and what does my name have to do with the murder of Yevhen Shcherban?
-- Appeal by Yulia Tymoshenko
PART II
The internecine criminal showdowns that took place in the Donetsk oblast in the 1990s weren't rivaled by any other region of Ukraine. When Yuriy Lutsenko became the interior minister in 2005, he unearthed in one Donetsk slag heap alone more than 30 bodies of businessmen, judges, lawyers, investigators and others that were killed by the Donetsk criminal leaders in the 1990s. That is one of the reasons they have sought revenge and thrown Yuriy Lutsenko in prison. In 2005, Viktor Yushchenko told Yuriy Lutsenko to "not go digging around Donetsk slag heaps any more."
Today Viktor Yanukovych decided to shift blame for the crimes he committed in the 1990s to me – his main political opponent – and try to keep me in prison for life, or maybe kill me in prison like he did with others in the 1990s. But we won’t let him do this. Viktor Yanukovych will never again be president of Ukraine, no matter how many criminal cases he brings against me. I will soon be free and Ukraine will assume its rightful place in the European family.
As I write this letter, prison officials are installing another security door next to me. Why are there hundreds of riot police in camouflage and with guns guarding me?
In this same way they are putting bars around freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, justice, and the right to live in Ukraine. But no matter where Yanukovych aims his guns, they will shoot to kill only at him.
Hang on and believe that the worst will pass and soon everything will be different. Viktor Yanukovych’s fear is justified. But the way he’s trying to cling to power he won’t succeed, it only makes the already difficult situation worse for him. To hold on to the presidency that he so wants, you have to become a moral, incorrupt, democratic and fair European leader - political repression, tyranny, dictatorship, kleptomania and outright stupidity doesn’t lead you to the temple.
See you soon,
Yulia Tymoshenko