KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A lawyer for Ukraine's jailed former premier Yulia Tymoshenko is accusing top Ukrainian government officials of pressuring the courts in criminal cases against her. Tymoshenko, the nation's top opposition leader, is serving a seven-year sentence on charges of abuse of office, which the West has condemned as politically motivated. She also is the target of several other investigations, including a tax evasion trial set to start next week. Lawyer Oleksandr Plakhotnyuk said Thursday that recent statements by President Viktor Yanukovych and a deputy prosecutor who linked Tymoshenko to the murder of a businessman 16 years ago are meant to push the judge to rule against Tymoshenko. Plakhotnyuk called that allegation "nothing else than pressure on the courts." Top EU leaders are boycotting Euro 2012 matches hosted in Ukraine over Tymoshenko.
Lawyer: Govt trying to slant Tymoshenko cases
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FILE - In this June 8, 2012 file picture Dutch soccer fans pass a protest poster that calls for release of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in Kiev, Ukraine on their way to view the Euro 2012 soccer match between The Netherlands and Denmark at a public view area . Germany's justice ministers are set to meet the daughter of Ukraine's imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko this week when Germany's national soccer team plays against the Netherlands in its first Euro 2012 match in Ukraine. Hesse state justice minister Joerg-Uwe Hahn told German news agency dapd on Sunday June 10, 2012 that Eugenia Tymoshenko will discuss her mother's fate with the ministers from the country's 16 states and their counterpart from the federal government on Wednesday June 13, in the city of Wiesbaden, Germany. (AP Photo/dapd/ Nigel Treblin,File)
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