KHARKIV: More than 5,000 protesters rallied in Kharkiv yesterday calling for former premier Yulia Tymoshenko to be released from jail in the first major show of opposition in the eastern Ukrainian city where she is serving her sentence.
The protest went ahead despite a local court order banning the demonstration and dozens of public transport vehicles blocking the rally’s passage. Tymoshenko, who lost a heated presidential election to Viktor Yanukovych in 2010, was jailed for seven years in 2011 on charges of overstepping her authority while prime minister by agreeing a gas deal with Russia.
A new fraud and tax evasion trial against Tymoshenko has dragged on for nearly a year in Kharkiv with hearings repeatedly postponed due to her absence for medical reasons. The opposition leader has denounced the trial as a political vendetta on the part of President Yanukovych.
“The reality is that today we have to fight,” boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko, leader of Udar (Punch) party, told the crowd.
Klitschko thanked local residents for “coming to express their position despite threats and intimidation”, as he stood on the roof of a van serving as an improvised podium for the opposition leaders after they had to make changes to the planned rally route.
Rally organisers Klitschko, nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party leader Oleg Tyagnybok and leading opposition figurehead Arseniy Yatsenyuk had planned to protest near the court during a hearing into the tax evasion case.
AFP
