Tymoshenko Lawyer Given Just Three Days to Read Trial Documents

Judge Rodion Kireyev gave former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's new lawyer three days to go over the gas deal papers related to his client's corruption charges.

Tymoshenko went on trial in July for alleged abuse of power while she was in office. The accusations involve a 2009 gas contract with Russia which financially injured Ukraine.

The prosecution is claiming that the price agreed to by Russia and Tymoshenko were too high, costing the country about $440 million.

Earlier, she had been charged with the same crime for purchasing 1,000 Opel Kombo vans for the government at 20 percent above the market value.

Yuriy Sukhov will be given until 10:00 a.m. on August 4th to read over documents relating to the deal, Kireyev ruled Monday.

Tymoshenko and Sukhov petitioned to get her new lawyer at least two months to study materials related to the case, but were denied.

Sukhov is also hearing another case on the same day that he's scheduled to be in court for the Tymoshenko trial. On Thursday, he is supposed to defend former Head of the State Customs Service Anatoliy Makarenko at 9 a.m. and then Tymoshenko at 10 a.m.

Also on Monday, the court heard testimony from former Premier Yuriy Yekhanurov, former Transport and Communications Minister Yosyp Vinsky, and former Ukrainian Education and Science Minister Ivan Vakarchuk.

Tymoshenko has called the trial a politically-charged farce. She claims that the accusations are an attempt by President Viktor Yanukovich to force her out of national politics.

"I declare you a puppet of the presidential office," Tymoshenko told Judge Kireyev at a pre-trial hearing in June. "You don't have the right to consider this case. You are fully integrated into a system of political repression directed by authorities."

"My voice will be even louder from prison, because the whole world will hear me," she said.

Tymoshenko, who was the nation's first female prime minister, serving from 2007 to 2010, was one of the heroes of Ukraine's Orange Revolution. She is the currently the leader of Ukraine's opposition party, but is facing a prison sentence of up to 10 years.