KIEV, April 14 (RAPSI) – The Supreme Court of Ukraine has closed the “gas case” against former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko who was sentenced to 7 years in prison, her attorney Aleksandr Plakhotnyuk told RIA Novosti on Monday.

Tymoshenko was sentenced in October 2011 to seven years in prison for abuse of power in signing gas contracts between Ukraine's Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom in 2009. In late December, she was taken to the Kharkiv penal colony. Soon after the sentencing, the tax police resumed the investigation into four criminal cases against Tymoshenko in connection with her activities as head of United Energy Systems of Ukraine in the 1990s.

In the second case, Tymoshenko has been charged with attempted public funds embezzlement, non-disclosure of foreign currency proceeds amounting to over $165 million, and tax evasion in the amount of over $5.8 million.

On February 22, Ukraine's parliament voted to release Tymoshenko from prison. The news followed closely on the heels of the adoption on February 21 by the parliament of sweeping amendments to the Criminal Code which carried the potential of clearing the way for her release.