Absurd trial

It seems that the current Ukrai-nian government has set itself a goal to completely shock the glo-bal public. All that is happening lately in Ukrainian politics can be summarized as “surrealism.”

Judge of Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv Andrii Trubnikov came to Yulia Tymoshenko’s prison cell on December 7 in the mantle, with a chair and... aiming to conduct judicial proceedings. Tymoshenko herself was lying on her bunk during this session of “justice delivery.” Her lawyers, MPs, and journalists had not been allowed into the remand prison, despite the trial being technically a public one.

It was reported already that this unusual out-of-chamber session of the court had launched deliberations in yet another Tymoshenko case, this time one connected with dealings of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine, Inc. The former prime minister is blamed for concealing income, attempted embezzlement of 405 million dollars of public funds, and tax evasion amounting to 47 million hryvnyas.

Before the second session on December 8, Tymoshenko was administered local anesthetic. This time her lawyer Serhii Vlasenko was allowed to the cell, he had to surrender his cell phone, but was free to use his recorder.

It should be noted that the penitentiary service itself does not consider the trial session in a cell to be something extraordinary. They describe it as a standard practice. “Overall, 270 such sessions had been held in remand prisons only during the past and current years,” the service’s press bureau reports.

Leader of the Party of Regions faction in Verkhovna Rada Olek-sandr Yefremov did his best to avoid commenting on the issue on December 8. His excuse was that he lacked legal information. “But still, I do not think that members of the judiciary and law enforcement authorities are exceeding their legal powers to any extent,” the parliamentary chief of the Regionnaires said. He then blushed heavily, but unfortunately, not due to the shame (easy blushing is a little-known peculiarity of Yefremov’s blood circulation).

We face the question now: who instigated them to act so illogically that even the Party of Regions itself could not explain it? Why re-arrest a person who has been detained already? Why did they do it in such haste? Why did not they postpone the trial by at least a week to let Tymoshenko get some medical treatment?

And finally, why is this defiant nonsense being committed just 10 days before the Ukraine-European Union summit?

Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko’s MP Andrii Pavlovsky made his predictions in the conversation with The Day: “I think it is a special operation to prevent anybody from even coming here on December 19. Viktor Yanukovych would appear on the stage then, clothed all in innocent white and say, ‘We would like to have better relations, we would so much like it, but as you can see, these dastardly Europeans did not even come here. They have canceled the summit.’ And then he would say that Ukraine allegedly has no options left, as it needs cheap gas, and would come to Russia to ask for terms. This would spell the end for Ukraine’s European prospects.”

MP Taras Chornovil also believes that the latest developments in the Tymoshenko case “are just an element of the preparation for the December 19 summit.”

“Some people want the summit to begin in a very negative situation for Ukraine. The new preventive measure is absurd. It makes no legal sense. It has only political sense and, unfortunately, it has much to do with foreign policy.”

By the way, the West’s reaction was immediate. “Continuation of politically motivated trials of opposition members and failure to release Tymoshenko may prompt the EU to refuse to sign and ratify the Association Agreement with Ukraine,” the European People’s Party’s resolution reads.

But how many such resolutions had been adopted before? Ukrainian authorities just brushed them aside so far. Tymoshenko’s daughter Yevhenia Carr asked the Europeans to implement personally targeted sanctions during the congress of the European People’s Party in Marseilles. “When Zimbabwe’s democratic opposition was being beaten up and arrested, Europe reacted to that with entry bans on their oppressors. Now it’s time to do the same on the current leadership of Ukraine,” she said. Indeed, only this can probably influence our ruling elite, if anything at all can – stripping them of their vacations in Europe, their ability to send their children to study there, as well as weekend shopping in Paris or Milan.

And one more very telling detail: a chair was left empty for Tymoshenko at the congress hall with her picture and the inscription “Freedom for Ukraine.” Presumably, the Europeans still have some hope for our country.