KIEV, August 16 - RAPSI. Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's defense has requested that the Supreme Specialized Court for Considering Criminal and Civil Cases cancel her sentence in the notorious gas case and close the criminal case against her during a speech to the court panel on Thursday.

"Numerous violations were made during the first instance trial," Tymoshenko's attorney Alexander Plakhotnyuk said during the speech. "The trial was accusatory from the start and the defense's position was not taken into account."

We ask to cancel the Pechyorsky District Court's decision and to close the criminal case against Yulia Tymoshenko, as she has committed no crime, he added.

The Pechyorsky 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. The verdict has aggravated Ukraine's ties with the EU. The West has called the sentence politically motivated, while the Ukrainian government has flatly denied the charges.

Last December, an appeals court left the sentence without amendment and transferred the former prime minister to a Kharkiv prison. Her defense appealed to the Supreme Specialized Court for Considering Criminal and Civil Cases in February. The court was made the final instance after judicial reforms in 2010. Its decisions are not subject to dispute.