Showing posts with label former prime minister. Show all posts
Showing posts with label former prime minister. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Court convicts Ukraine's former prime minister

A Ukraine court has found former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko guilty of abuse of authority for signing gas contracts with Russia.

Tymoshenko could face up to several years in prison and is expected to be sentenced later Tuesday.

Authorities deployed hundreds of police officers around the court to keep order, state media reported. Dozens of angry Tymoshenko supporters took to the streets of Kiev in August when she was taken into custody.

In April, the Ukraine's Prosecutor General's office opened a criminal case charging Tymoshenko with signing overpriced gas deals with Russian energy provider Gazprom that inflicted damages to the country of more than 1.5 billion hryvnas (almost $190 million at the current exchange rate) and which Tymoshenko had allegedly no right to sign.

Tymoshenko repeatedly brushed off all charges against her as political, calling the trial a "farce" and naming the judge a "stooge of (President Viktor) Yanukovych's administration" appointed to "fabricate" the case.

The Russian foreign ministry said the nation's 2009 natural gas agreements with Ukraine were legal.

"We follow the principle that (Yulia) Tymoshenko's trial must be fair and unbiased and meet all of the requirements of Ukrainian legislation, with the possibility of defense and compliance with the fundamental humanitarian standards and rules," according to a ministry statement.

Tymoshenko narrowly lost to Yanukovych in a presidential election in February 2010, and became his fiercest opponent.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Vaiko pleads to save convicts of Rajiv Gandhi murder

The leader of the MDMK, Vaiko, believes there are still chances to save the lives of three men sentenced to death in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

In Vellore on Friday Vaiko repeated a suggestion that Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister should intervene to stop the execution.

His comments came after he visited the convicts Murugan, Santhan and Periravalan at the Central Prison in Vellore.

Vaiko said India’s top lawyers, who fight against the death penalty  Ramjethmalani, Colin Gonsalvez and Wahid Chowdry will hold a meeting and are expected to give their opinion in the case. Vaiko said the three men convicted of involvement in the assassination in 1991 are innocent.

Family members of Perarivalan held a fast, demanding a stay on the execution of death sentence.

Following the dismissal of the mercy petition filed by the three assassins, Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan, protests against the execution by various political parties, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and associations are increasing day by day.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Perarivalan’s father, Kuyildasan, led a fast demanding a stay on the Union Government’s execution of death punishment. The fast was organised by the Thamizhar Padhukappu Iyakkam near the Jolarpet railway junction. They were joined by the members of the Vidhuthalai Siruthaigal Party.

In Chennai a flash rail roko by the students of Dr Ambedkar Law College, demanding clemency, for the Rajiv Gandhi murder convicts disrupted the traffic on the Beach - Tambaram and Velachery - Beach section for about 30 minutes on Friday.