KIEV — Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko was charged on Monday over alleged misuse of state funds during her tenure as prime minister from 2007 to 2010, Tymoshenko’s spokeswoman said.
Tymoshenko, who narrowly lost the February presidential election to President Viktor Yanukovych, has repeatedly dismissed as politically motivated accusations her government misused money raised by selling carbon emission rights.
“This looks really absurd,” she said Monday in a statement on her party’s web site. “This is how the president of Ukraine is getting rid of his main competitor.”
In October, auditors hired by Yanukovych’s government published a report accusing Tymoshenko of illegally using funds from selling carbon emission rights under the Kyoto Protocol to plug gaps in the country’s pension fund.
“I paid pensions to people, but this is not a crime under Ukraine’s law,” she said.
(Reuters)