Eastbook

Oleksander Tymoshenko, husband of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is now serving her seven-year sentence, applied for political asylum in the Czech Republic. Head of Czech diplomacy Karel Schwarzenberg stated that his application will be positively examined. 

According to the Czech newspaper “Pravo”, suitable documents were submitted at the end of December 2011. The case has already been discussed by the interior minister JanKubice and foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who today (06.01.2012) in a radio broadcast expressed his opinion that he will comply with the request for asylum. Tymoshenko will be another prominent person from Ukraine (after former minister of economy in Tymoshenko Government Bohdan Danylyshyn) who will be granted asylum in the Czech Republic.

The reasons for which Oleksander Tymoshenko turned to the authorities of the Czech republic with request for political asylum were explained on Yulia Tymoshenko’s Internet website: “This step is in response to the immoral attempts at putting pressure on Yulia Tymoshenko. Not having broken  the leader of the Fatherland party, the regime started to harass the family and close relatives of the former Prime Minister. … The decision on applying for political asylum is caused by the willingness to devoid the regime of additional tools for putting pressure on Yulia Tymoshenko,” reads the party’s statement.

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51-year-old Oleksander Tymoshenko is a businessman holding shares in the international industrial company in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic. He was never involved in political activity in Ukraine. In the ’90s, along with his father Hennadiy, he ran UESU Corporation (United Energy Systems of Ukraine), of which Yulia Tymoshenko was the general director. UESU became a gas monopolist by importing gas from Russia. Between 2001 and 2002, the husband of the Prime Minister was in prison, accused of corruption and tax evasion.

Though neither of the interested parties confirmed the rumours, it is an open secret that Mr and Mrs Tymoshenko have been separated for a few years.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda, KyivPost, Radio Svoboda, Korrespondent, ZN.UA,

Translated by Marta Lityńska