Med of the Czech Republic: Tymoshenko’s husband probably has already received refugee status

The husband of the ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko Alexander, most likely, has already received the status of a political refugee in the Czech Republic. According to RIA Novosti, this was announced on Friday by the first deputy prime minister of the Czech government and the head of the Foreign Ministry Karel Schwarzenberg. “As far as I know, this gentleman asked for asylum in the Czech Republic. Most likely, it has already been decided that he would stay here,” Idnes.cz told Schwarzenberg. At the moment, the head of the Foreign Ministry of the Czech Republic is on a foreign trip.

Earlier, the local Pravo newspaper also said that, apparently, the Czech authorities will satisfy the request of the spouse of the former Ukrainian prime minister, who is currently serving seven -year imprisonment at home. Alexander Tymoshenko himself, the newspaper claims, has been in the Czech Republic since the end of last year.

The publication recalls that a year ago the Czech Republic has already provided political asylum to the former minister of economics in the government of Tymoshenko Bogdan Danilishin. He was announced on a domestic and international wanted list in August 2010. On October 19 of the same year, he was detained on the territory of the Czech Republic based on a request to Interpol. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine is investigating a criminal case against Danilishin, initiated by the fact of causing a loss to the state by 4.5 million hryvnias.

Then the decision to provide refuge Danilishin led to the cooling of relations between Kyiv and Prague. In particular, in May last year, two Czech military attaches were sent from Ukraine on charges of espionage. In response, Prague sent two Ukrainian diplomats. Pravo suggests that a positive decision in response to the request of Alexander Tymoshenko will cause a similar tension in the relations of the two countries.

The newspaper clarifies that Yulia Tymoshenko has been participating in business projects in the Czech Republic since 2000.

Currently, the former Ukrainian prime minister is serving a sentence in the Kachanovskaya colony of Kharkov. Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of abuse of powers when concluding gas agreements with Russia, which, according to the prosecution, caused serious material damage to the Ukrainian side. In addition to the "gas" on Tymoshenko, about ten more criminal cases were instituted.

In particular, they relate to the activities of the company "Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine", which Tymoshenko led in the 1990s. At one time, Alexander Tymoshenko, suspected of embezzlement of large funds, also took place in this case. However, after the victory of the “Orange” revolution, when Tymoshenko first took the post of Prime Minister, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine closed criminal cases against Tymoshenko himself and other defendants. Interpol also stopped their search.

Alexander Tymoshenko has always been a low -public figure. He rarely appeared in public with his wife and practically did not communicate with the media. Only after the process began over Yulia Tymoshenko, he began to regularly appear in the courtroom with his wife and daughter Eugenia.