Supporters on song for jailed political leader

Ukrainian singers staged a birthday concert yesterday for opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko at the gates of the Kiev prison where she is being held while more than 3,000 of her supporters chanted messages of solidarity.

People heaped flowers and nailed up hand-written greetings messages on heart-shaped cards outside Luk’yanivska jail to mark her 51st birthday. Many, bearing flags with the slogan “We will overcome!”, chanted her name.

Tymoshenko, who was twice prime minister, has been held at the Luk’yanivska detention centre in Kiev since she was jailed this summer for seven years for abuse of office.

She and her supporters say the case is a political vendetta against her by President Viktor Yanukovich, who narrowly beat her in a bitterly fought run-off for the job in February 2010.

The affair has derailed Ukraine’s plans for closer ties with the European Union.