Protests as Ukraine's ex-PM held in court row

FORMER Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, once a leading figure in the country's Orange Revolution but now on trial for abuse of office, was arrested by police yesterday in the middle of a judicial hearing for violations of court procedures.

Her supporters in court, including national lawmakers, squabbled with riot police, trying to prevent them from driving her away in a prison car and shouting: "Shame! Shame!"

Dozens of Ms Tymoshenko's supporters then gathered outside the court building in Kiev and tried to block the road, but riot police pushed them aside.

The charismatic Ms Tymoshenko, the country's top opposition leader, has criticized the trial as an attempt by President Viktor Yanukovych to bar her from elections and mocked the court.

She has refused to rise when addressing the court, as required, and routinely insulted the judge. Her supporters have repeatedly disrupted hearings.

Ordered to act by a judge, police surrounded Ms Tymoshenko and escorted her out of the courtroom, and hundreds of police officers surrounded the prison car as it forced its way slowly through angry crowds.

The 50-year-old opposition leader is charged with abusing her powers by signing a natural gas import contract with Russia in 2009 that prosecutors claim was disadvantageous to Ukraine.

She insists she is innocent, arguing that the contract ended weeks of natural gas disruptions to Ukrainian and European consumers, and experts believe the trial is an effort to bar her from contesting upcoming elections against her long-time rival Mr Yanukovych, with close ties to the Kremlin.

Ms Tymoshenko was nicknamed Ukraine's "gas princess" in the late 1990s for serving as the head of a leading natural gas importer. She was jailed briefly in 2001 on suspicion of smuggling gas, but the case never went to trial.

"Tymoshenko's arrest is a verdict against the government and the beginning of its end," said ally, Serhiy Pashinsky.