ANALYSIS: Is Kuchma afraid of Tymoshenko or of dialogue? (04/08/01)

ANALYSIS

Is Kuchma afraid of Tymoshenko or of dialogue?

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

PRAGUE - A strange legal fight over the whereabouts of former Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko took place in Kyiv over the past week.

A Kyiv District Court on March 27 annulled the warrant issued by the Procurator General's Office for the arrest of Ms. Tymoshenko, who had been in jail since February 13 on charges of bribery, smuggling, and forgery. Ms. Tymoshenko denies all of the charges, dismissing them as politically motivated.

Explaining the court ruling, Judge Mykola Zamkovenko said there was not sufficient reason to believe Ms. Tymoshenko would hide from investigators. He added that the arrest warrant was unnecessary since Ms. Tymoshenko had attended all required interrogations. Immediately after leaving her solitary confinement, Ms. Tymoshenko went to a Kyiv clinic for treatment, as she is reportedly suffering from a stomach ulcer.

The Procurator General's Office subsequently appealed the ruling of the Kyiv District Court, and the Kyiv City Court on March 31 complied with the appeal and ordered that Ms. Tymoshenko be placed under arrest once more, after which guards appeared outside her hospital room.

Ms. Tymoshenko's lawyers then filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, which on April 2 ordered a suspension of the arrest at least until it considers the appeal.

Oleksander Turchynov, head of the parliamentary caucus of Ms. Tymoshenko's Fatherland Party, told Interfax that the authorities are afraid of the former vice prime minister. He added, referring to "informed sources," that the order to rearrest Ms. Tymoshenko came personally from President Leonid Kuchma.

Mr. Turchynov also said he spoke with the president about Ms. Tymoshenko's husband, who is in jail on charges of bribery. Mr. Kuchma suggested that Ms. Tymoshenko's fate depends on her "behavior." Ms. Turchynov added that apparently Mr. Tymoshenko behaved badly - the Fatherland Party voted to pass Major [Mykola] Melnychenko's tapes to Western experts for expertise." Mr. Turchynov said this fact contributed to the imprisonment of the former vice-prime minister.

Meanwhile, the Forum for National Salvation commented that the decision to rearrest Ms. Tymoshenko testifies to the fact that the authorities are not interested in overcoming the current crisis.

Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko also commented that Ms. Tymoshenko's rearrest "stops the negotiation process on the way out of the political crisis." He added that the rearrest was "a demonstration of force - unfavorable for overcoming the crisis and arranging a normal political dialogue."

Jan Maksymiuk is the Belarus, Ukraine and Poland specialist on the staff of RFE/RL Newsline.

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