Tymoshenko opposes boycott of Euro 2012
By
our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online
Kyiv (dpa) – Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime
minister, opposes any boycott of the Euro 2012 football tournament to
protest her conditions of imprisonment, a Polish parliamentarian who
visited her said Sunday.
She had called the boycott, supported by several western
politicians, a “bad idea,” according to Jacek Protasiewicz, who
visited her in a hospital in Kharkiv where she is being treated for
back pain under the supervision of a German doctor.
“She‘s asking them not to do it,” said Protasiewicz, as quoted by
Ukrainian media.
The health of Tymoshenko, 51, was poor, he added.
“You sense that she is mentally under terrible pressure,” he said.
Several high-level EU politicians have already declined to attend
the football tournament, to be jointly hosted from next month by
Poland and Ukraine, in protest at Kyiv‘s treatment of the opposition
leader.
The tournament starts in Warsaw on June 8, and its final match is
to be played in Kyiv on July 1.
The critics contend she was unfairly convicted and has possibly
been mistreated in prison.
A Kyiv court in October sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in
prison on abuse of office charges connected to a natural gas deal
signed with Russia when she was in office. She has denied all
wrongdoing.
A second trial is under way and is set to resume Monday, but
analysts said the hearing may be adjourned because of her treatment.
She faces up to 12 further years in prison for alleged
misappropriation and tax evasion in the 1990s.
dpa wo jbp hl
Author: Wolfgang Jung
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