KIEV (Reuters) ? Ukraine opened a new criminal case against jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday, alleging her involvement in a "criminal conspiracy" 15 years ago to embezzle state funds through gas purchases from Russia.
The new case was announced by Ukraine's state security service just two days after the opposition leader was jailed for seven years for abuse of office in a trial that outraged Western governments.
It was certain to dash the hopes of Tymoshenko's supporters that President Viktor Yanukovich's leadership, under pressure from the European Union and the United States, might allow her quick release and let her return to political life.
The SBU state security service first aired the case last July linking it to Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, an energy company which the imprisoned politician once ran in the mid-1990s, a period of sleaze, crime and rampant corruption.
It was her direction of the company -- which imported Russian gas for resale in Ukraine -- from 1995-96 that earned her the nickname of "gas princess."
But in a new twist Thursday the SBU specifically named her and another former prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko as partners-in-crime in the case which it said had resulted in a debt of $405 million which was still owed by Ukraine to Russia.
"In November 1995, Tymoshenko entered into a criminal conspiracy with first deputy prime minister Lazarenko," SBU official Ivan Derevyanko told journalists.
SERVING TIME
Lazarenko, who subsequently became prime minister for a year, is currently serving a prison sentence in the United States for money-laundering and other offences.
Derevyanko said the alleged criminal activity took place amid a web of barter deals between Ukraine and Russia over supplies of Russian gas through Unified Energy Systems and which involved Ukrainian and Russian institutions.
The result was that the Ukrainian state had been left with a debt of $405 million owed to the Russian defense ministry, he said.
He said the conspiracy had involved sums of money being paid into Tymoshenko's personal bank account and another company owned by her, and money being transferred to Swiss bank accounts held by Lazarenko.
Tymoshenko had been formally charged with the new offences in her Kiev police detention cell Wednesday, he said.
Opening a new case against her seemed like a counter-move by the Yanukovich leadership to rebut Western charges that their prosecution of Tymoshenko is politically-driven.
Yanukovich, who beat his arch-rival narrowly for the presidency in February 2010, denies political motives and says charges against Tymoshenko are part of efforts by his administration to clean up high-level skullduggery.
Tymoshenko, after a three-month trial that ended Tuesday, was convicted of exceeding her authority in 2009 by forcing state energy firm Naftogaz to sign a deal with Russia's gas giant Gazprom which left Ukraine paying an exorbitant price for gas.
She denied any wrongdoing and said the trial was a political vendetta pursued by Yanukovich against her, a view largely supported by Western governments.
EU WARNING
The European Union has warned Yanukovich that bilateral relations will suffer because of the trial and says completion of an association agreement, including creation of a free trade zone, is in doubt unless she is released.
Tymoshensko's supporters said the new case was a sign that Yanukovich wanted to keep Tymoshenko locked up at all costs.
"They are trying to get some sort of insurance against decision of European courts. They are opening new investigations and new processes which have a single aim -- not to free Yulia Tymoshenko from prison," said her main aide, Oleksander Turchinov.
Tymoshenko's lawyers have said she will launch a formal appeal against her jail sentence, possibly next week.
But her daughter Yevhenia said her family was not setting much store by these appeals.
"We don't really hope for the appeals court to acquit her. What we hope for is for Western messages to keep coming and for their support of my mother to continue and that the President and his team will realize that Ukraine is going the wrong way," she told Reuters.
EU diplomats have suggested to Yanukovich that a way out for him could be to "decriminalize" the offence of which she has been convicted -- turning it into an administrative offence rather than a criminal one -- and allowing her to go free.
(Additional reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Andrew Roche)
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