KIEV, June 6 (RAPSI) - The jailed former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko has requested the court to start hearing the criminal case over fraud at the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) in her absence, Ukraine's Channel 5 reported on Thursday, citing her defense attorney Sergei Vlasenko.

Tymoshenko, who headed the United Energy Systems of Ukraine in the late 90s, has again filed a motion for closing the case, Vlasenko said. Not to drag out the trial, the former prime minister wrote to say that her defense attorney would represent her in court, the channel reported.

On May 22, Kharkov's Kievsky District Court once again postponed the case hearing due to Tymoshenko's non-appearance, as she was once again not brought to the court. The next court hearing was scheduled for June 7.

The case has been postponed for over a year, due to the ex-prime minister's poor health, which has required her to undergo treatment at a Kharkov hospital.

In October 2011, Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of power. The judge said she abused her powers when she signed a 2009 deal with Moscow under which Ukraine paid a high price for Russian gas.

She also faces accusations in a high-profile murder case.

Evhen Shcherban, head of the Aton financial corporation and a deputy of the Supreme Rada, was shot dead at Donetsk Airport in November 1996. His wife and an airport employee were also killed.

The Prosecutor General's Office claimed that the murder was ordered by two former Ukrainian prime ministers, Tymoshenko and Pavlo Lazarenko.

According to the investigators, Shcherban stood in the way of making United Energy Systems of Ukraine, which Tymoshenko headed at the time, the monopoly distributor of gas in the Donetsk Region. The investigators claimed that Tymoshenko and Lazarenko paid $2.8 million for Shcherban's murder. If Tymoshenko is found guilty as charged she could be sentenced to life in prison.