KIEV, December 22 - RAPSI. Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s defense will not attend any further hearings in her appeal against her sentence in the “gas case,” her attorney Serhiy Vlasenko said.

Vlasenko read out Tymoshenko’s statement during the Thursday appellate court session.

Tymoshenko, who has been kept in custody since August, has refused to take part in the hearings because she believes that it is useless to seek justice in Ukrainian courts.

“I have just read out the statement of Yulia Tymoshenko, who has decided to stop her participation in this farce. And this concerns not only Tymoshenko, but all those taking part in the process on our side,” Vlasenko said.

He said the court can continue to consider the case without the defense.

“They have the opportunity to hear the case, they have the appeal,” Vlasenko said.

Tymoshenko has been under pre-trial detention since August. A Kiev district court sentenced Tymoshenko on October 11 to seven years in prison for abuse of power in signing gas contracts between Ukraine’s Naftogaz and Russia’s Gazprom in 2009. Both her defense attorneys and opposition activists believe her prosecution is driven by politics, while the authorities have denied such allegations.