Ukrainian opposition leader faces criminal charges

Ukraine’s opposition has reacted furiously after the country’s prosecutor’s office re-opened an old criminal investigation against former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

The allegations that she tried to bribe Supreme Court judges date back to 2004.

“I understood that they just wanted to stop me this way, they wanted to untie their hands, to be able to do whatever they want in the country without any resistance from the opposition,” said former Ukrainian Prime Minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko, who lost to President Viktor Yanukovich in February’s bitterly contested election, is an outspoken critic of her rival’s pro-Russian policies.

She says it is no coincidence the investigation has been reopened just days before Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is due to meet Yanukovich in Kiev.

Last month Yanukovich’s prime minister accused Tymoshenko’s government of squandering nearly three hundred million euros received from selling Ukrainian carbon quotas to Japan.

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