The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, on Tuesday decided that jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko’s signing of gas contracts with Russia more than two years ago was an act of "high treason."
“Tymoshenko’s actions have the signs of high treason,” said Inna Bogoslovskaya, who heads the parliamentary commission investigating the 2009 deal between Ukrainian and Russian energy companies Naftogaz and Gazprom.
“These actions should be investigated by law enforcement agencies,” she said during Tuesday’s parliament session.
The Rada on Tuesday decided to submit the materials collected by the commission to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office and the Security Service. The resolution was supported by 266 Rada deputies, with a required minimum of 226.
The ex-premier is already serving a 7-year prison term on charges of abusing her office by pushing through the 2009 contract with Gazprom. The Ukrainian authorities say the deal has caused multi-billion-dollar damage to the country's economy and are pushing Moscow to review the agreement.
Tymoshenko has denied any wrongdoing, accusing Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych of orchestrating the charges to get rid of a rival.
Ukraine’s penitentiary service said Tymoshenko has once again refused to receive treatment recommended by German doctors.
Tymoshenko’s supporters claim her health has deteriorated since her pre-trial detention began in August 2011 and that she is no longer able to walk due to back problems.
Tymoshenko is currently battling fresh charges of financial wrongdoing during her tenure as head of United Energy Systems of Ukraine in the 1990s.
The former Ukrainian premier is in urgent need of specialized medical services that are unavailable at the penal colony she is being held in, her lawyer said last week. The prison administration maintains the opposite, that the prison hospital can meet all the recommendations made by a medical commission that recently examined Tymoshenko.
