Former Ukrainian PM Tymoshenko´s husband seeks Czech asylum-press
According to Pravo´s information, Czech Interior Minister Jan Kubice discussed the issue with Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg on Wednesday.
Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in Ukraine last year in a trial that the domestic opposition and the West have criticised as politically motivated.
She was punished for signing, in her capacity as prime minister, gas supply contracts with Russia that the court found disadvantageous for Kyiv.
Pravo writes that Oleksandr Tymoshenko, 51, has never been active in politics or public life. Only little is known about him in Ukraine.
He started appearing in public only last August when his wife was taken into custody. He attended the court sessions during her trial.
Pravo writes that the Tymoshenkos ended in custody already once in the past, in the early 2000s, when the prosecutor accused them of corruption and state money embezzlement. The accusation related to their business activities in the 1990s when they became one of the richest couples in Ukraine.
However, no unlawful activities of theirs have been proved and they were released, Pravo writes.
“The Ukrainian prosecutor´s office, however, recently focused on these cases [from the 1990s] again and it is investigating the former prime minister for alleged embezzlement, tax evasion and bribery. It is not ruled out that the authorities have focused on her husband in this case as well,” Pravo adds.
According to Pravo´s information, Oleksandr Tymoshenko will most probably be granted Czech asylum.
This will almost surely cool relations between Prague and Kyiv, the paper continues.
“The situation was similar in the case of Bohdan Danylyshyn, former economy minister in Yulia Tymoshenko´s cabinet, whom the Czech Republic granted asylum a year ago,” Pravo says.
“In May 2011, Ukraine expelled two Czech military attaches over alleged espionage, and Prague reacted by doing the same,” Pravo recalls.
On the other hand, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov visited the Czech Republic in late 2011. After meeting him in Prague, Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said the Czech Republic and Ukraine had overcome a period of problems following the scandal [with mutual expulsion of attaches], Pravo writes.
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