Ukrainian court rejects Tymoshenko's appeal

"The judges came to the conclusion that there are no grounds for the appeal to be justified," a judge said.

Tymoshenko was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011  for overreaching her authority in signing a gas deal with Russia in 2009. The deal obliged Ukraine to buy larger amounts of gas than it now needs, and at higher prices than it says is fair.Kazinform has learned from RIA Novosti.

Tymoshenko's lawyers in their appeal asked the court to acquit the former prime minister and close the criminal case against her due to the lack of evidence. Prosecutors insisted that the panel of judges leave the sentence unchanged.

Defense team lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko said the court ruling will be appealed in the European Court of Human Rights.

"Literally by the end of this week we will complete an addition to the appeal concerning the lack of justice for Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine and hand it over to the European Court of Human Rights," he said.

The lawyer added that the court's decision was "in fact President Viktor Yanukovych's decision" designed to show that he will keep Tymoshenko, his main political rival, in prison for "as long as it takes."

A leader of Ukraine's united opposition Oleksandr Turchynov said the verdict "had nothing to do with justice" and was a "political sentencing carried out on the presidential administration's order."

Another opposition leader, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said he was "convinced that the European court will rule in favor of Tymoshenko."