New Charges Filed Against Ukraine's Tymoshenko

Yulia Tymoshenko

A lawyer for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said today that prosecutors have filed four new criminal charges against her.

Lawyer Serhyi Vlasenko said all charges are tax related and connected with her management of a natural gas import company in Ukraine during the 1990s.

A Kyiv court in October found Tymoshenko, who is the most prominent leader of Ukraine's political opposition, guilty of illegally ordering the signing of a 2009 natural-gas import agreement with Russia in violation of the law, and sentenced her to seven years in prison.

Western nations criticized Tymoshenko's jailing as politically motivated.

The opposition leader says she is the victim of a political vendetta by President Viktor Yanukovych.

She has denied allegations of wrongdoing while she headed a company called Unified Energy Systems, which was the main importer of Russian gas into Ukraine from 1995 to 1997.

compiled from agency reports