Divided Ukraine awaits Tymoshenko appeal ruling

UKRAINE: Ukraine's high court rules Wednesday on former premier Yulia Tymoshenko's appeal against her seven-year jailing on charges the West views as President Viktor Yanukovych's political revenge.

The 2004 Orange Revolution leader's lawyers expect the ex-Soviet state's court to uphold the 51-year-old's conviction on abuse of power charges stemming from an expensive gas deal she struck with Russia in 2009.

A lower court rejected the appeal on December 23.

An appeal rejection would mark the end of Tymoshenko's legal recourse in Ukraine and finally clear the way for her to take her full case to the European Court of Human Rights -- a move the defence had been kept from making by months of judicial process delays. The Strasbourg court opened hearings on Tuesday into whether Tymoshenko's pre-trial detention was political motivated and her prison conditions had violated her basic rights.

Her probe was launched shortly after Yanukovych narrowly beat his rival in a bitter 2010 presidential ballot whose outcome Tymoshenko -- backed by Ukrainian nationalists who seek closer EU ties -- initially refused to accept.

But the European court has no legal authority to rule on the merits of the conviction itself until all legal avenues have been exhausted in Ukraine.

Tymoshenko's defence said it expected victory in Strasbourg but continued resistance to Western pressure inside Ukraine itself.

AFP