Ukraine’s
Security Service Files New Charges Against
Tymoshenko
(VOA News)
- Ukraine’s
state security service has filed new corruption charges October 13
against
jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, suspected of misusing
the
government budget while serving as Prime Minister to pay off a $405
million
debt owed to Russia
by an energy company she once ran.
In its new
corruption
case against Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s
SBU accuses her of having a co-conspirator - former Prime Minister
Pavlo
Lazarenko, who served in the post from 1996 to 1997. Lazarenko is
serving a
prison term in the United States for
money-laundering and
other offences.
The two are
accused of
embezzling government money to settle the debts of Unified Energy
Systems of
Ukraine to the Russian defence ministry. Tymoshenko ran the company in
the
1990s, before serving two terms as Prime Minister in 2005 and from 2007
to
2010.