Former Ukraine prime minister charged with bribery – JURIST

Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was charged on Wednesday for allegedly offering bribes to members of the Ukrainian parliament.

On Tuesday, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) accused an unnamed political leader of bribery. Later that day, NABU and SAPO conducted searches at the offices of her Batkivshchyna party. 

Tymoshenko responded to the searches with a statement on Facebook, stating:

Only loud public statements on the Internet without any evidence. Search is a grand PR move. Didn’t find anything, and therefore just took my work phones, parliamentary documents and personal savings, information about which is fully displayed in the official declaration. I strongly reject all absurd accusations. Looks like the election is much closer than it seemed. And someone decided to start sweeping competitors.

Additionally, NABU published a recording of wiretapped conversations in which Tymoshenko can reportedly be heard negotiating the vote-buying scheme. According to these recordings, three officials were offered $10,000 per month for their compliance with voting instructions during parliamentary sessions. The end of the video portrays a recording where the suspect’s face is blurred; however, many media outlets have identified the individual as Tymoshenko.

On Wednesday, NABU stated on Telegram that the suspect allegedly initiated a systemic mechanism for a vote-buying scheme. The statement claims that this was not a one-time agreement, but an ongoing consensus that members of the parliament were to receive instructions on how to vote, or even abstain from voting.

Yulia Tymoshenko became a prominent figure in Ukraine during the 2004 Orange Revolution. In 2005, she became the nation’s first female prime minister and served again from 2007 to 2010. She was imprisoned from 2011 to 2014 by then-president Viktor Yanukovych in what was widely considered a politically motivated case. Tymoshenko is currently a member of the Ukrainian parliament, serving as the People’s Deputy of Ukraine and a leader of the Batkivshchyna political party.

According to SAPO spokeswoman Olha Postoliuk, the prosecutor’s office will request a preventive bail of UAH 50 million. Tymoshenko continues to deny all allegations. “You naive people probably think these primitive steps will make me run or stop fighting,” she said. “You are very much wrong.”