JURIST - Paper Chase: Ukraine PM summoned for questioning before prosecutor

[JURIST] Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko [personal website] said Monday that she has been summoned [UNIAN report] to testify before Ukraine's Prosecutor General’s Office on September 11. An official for the office has said that her testimony is being sought by prosecutors investigating the 2004 poisoning of President Viktor Yushchenko [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], but Tymoshenko has said the real reason for the summons is Yushchenko's allegation that she has committed treason [Ukranian Journal report] by supporting Russia in its conflict with Georgia [JURIST news archive] and other political issues. Tymoshenko has denied having a pro-Russia agenda [RIA Novosti report], and has said that she does not want to burden Ukraine by becoming more involved in the conflict. As a result of conflicts between Yushchenko and Tymoshemko, the country's ruling coalition collapsed last week [Financial Times report] and must be reconstituted within 40 days, or will be dissolved in order for new elections to be held. AP has more.

Yuschenko's Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc and Tymoshenko's Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc [party websites, in Ukrainian] had formed the county's ruling coalition after winning 228 seats in the 450-member Verkhovna Rada [official website, in Ukrainian] in the 2007 parliamentary election [JURIST report]. Those results were challenged by leaders of the Communist Party of Ukraine [party website, in Ukrainian], but were upheld [JURIST report] by the High Administrative Court of Ukraine in October 2007. The 2007 elections were held after Yushchenko issued a degree dissolving parliament [JURIST report] in April of that year.

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