Yulia Tymoshenko, the erstwhile populist prime minister of Ukraine
[photo right] was charged with murder on Friday. Former prime minister Yevhen Shcherban was killed in a contract style murder at the Donetsk airport in 1996. The attractive former prime minister is accused of organizing and ordering the hit on Scherban. Tymoshenko, who has became a darling of western feminists
[photo below], is serving a seven year prison sentence on corruption charges, and is also awaiting trial on charges of tax evasion but that trial has been postponed multiple times since it was convened in April. Tymoshenko has steadfastly maintained her innocence of all charges and her lawyers allege the prosecutions are part of a political vendetta by the government of President Viktor Yanukovych who is "looking for a scapegoat". Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko in a run-off election in 2010. The Ukranian Supreme Court upheld Tymoshenko's conviction for abuse of office in August, but the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously passed a
resolution calling for her release from prison claiming that Tymoshenko's role in the "Orange Revolution"
of 2004 subjected her and more than a dozen other political leaders to prosecution for "normal political decision making". While prime minister she signed a natural gas deal with Russia allegedly without cabinet approval. The deal proved to be detrimental to Ukraine's economy. Before running for office Tymoshenko was a prominent gas trader and Shcherban was one of Ukraine's richest men. His alleged assassination appeared to be for business reasons. Europe's Court of Human Rights is expected to rule Tymoshenko's current imprisonment is illegal within the next few weeks. The European Union has called her imprisonment "selective justice".
resolution calling for her release from prison claiming that Tymoshenko's role in the "Orange Revolution" of 2004 subjected her and more than a dozen other political leaders to prosecution for "normal political decision making". While prime minister she signed a natural gas deal with Russia allegedly without cabinet approval. The deal proved to be detrimental to Ukraine's economy. Before running for office Tymoshenko was a prominent gas trader and Shcherban was one of Ukraine's richest men. His alleged assassination appeared to be for business reasons. Europe's Court of Human Rights is expected to rule Tymoshenko's current imprisonment is illegal within the next few weeks. The European Union has called her imprisonment "selective justice".