KIEV, February 28 (RAPSI) – A judge of the Kievsky District Court of Kharkiv has dropped criminal charges against former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the case concerning financial abuse within the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU), Tymoshenko's party Batkivshchyna reported Friday.

Moreover, the court has removed a seizure of Tymoshenko's property.

Tymoshenko has been serving a seven-year sentence in a penal colony in the city of Kharkov for abuse of power based on a gas deal she signed with Russia in 2009. Since May 2012, she has been undergoing treatment in a local hospital. Tymoshenko was also charged with financial fraud, which is alleged to have taken place when she was head of United Energy Systems of Ukraine in the 1990s. The case was postponed for over a year, due to her poor health.

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.

The parliamentary session was held against the backdrop of mass protests that initially got underway in Ukraine in November. Unrest in Kiev erupted this week anew as thousands of people marched on the parliament building, where a standoff was taking place over proposed constitutional reforms that the opposition said could provide a way out of the political crisis that is paralyzing the country. The violence that ensued resulted in numerous deaths and hundreds of injuries.

Fighting between radical anti-government protesters and police has claimed 77 lives, according to the Ukrainian Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian parliament voted to impeach President Viktor Yanukovich and called for elections to be held on May 25. In a statement, he referred to efforts to oust him as a coup.