UKRAINE-TYMOSHENKO-SUPPORTERS-RALLY

Kyiv, August 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Some 500 supporters of Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko have walked from Kyiv’s Khreschatyk metro station along Instytutska and Lypska streets to the building of the Supreme Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases.

The rally participants were accompanied by the police, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported.

Tymoshenko’s supporters are holding united opposition flags and are wearing white vests with the words Batkivschyna and “Free Yulia” and an image of a heart. They are also chanting pro-Tymoshenko slogans and singing folk songs.

Ukrainian parliamentarians are gathering at the building. Arseniy Yatseniuk, leader of the Front for Change party, said the Supreme Specialized Court is not the last instance and a lawsuit will be filed with the European Court of Human Rights after the cassation appeal is considered.

The Ukrainian Higher Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases will complete hearings on the cassation appeal filed by the defense lawyers for Tymoshenko contesting the decisions made by the Kyiv Pechersky Court and the Kyiv Court of Appeals on the “gas case,” which found Tymoshenko guilty and sentenced her to seven years in prison. The court is expected to give its decision on Tuesday.

[UA EUROPE EEU EMRG POL PRO]

13:39:29 EET-2