KIEV, June 26 - RAPSI. Ukraine's High Specialized Court on Civil and Criminal Cases has rescheduled for July 12 hearing of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s appeal against her seven-year prison sentence in the notorious “gas case.”
A Kiev district court sentenced the former prime minister in October 2011 for abuse of power in signing gas contracts between Ukraine's Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom in 2009. The judge declared that Tymoshenko abused her position as prime minister and issued directives regarding gas contract negotiations in Moscow, which were poorly documented and lacked the government's consent.
The appeals court upheld the judgment in December.
The same month she was transferred to the Kharkiv Penal Colony.
The defense filed a cassation appeal with the High Specialized Court in February.
Tymoshenko holds that the prosecution is an act of political revenge by President Viktor Yanukovych, who denies the accusation.
