Tymoschenko appeal rejected

Former Ukraine prime minister Yulia Tymoschenko has had her appeal, against a seven-year sentence for abuse of office, rejected by Kyiv.

The FT reports that the decision has further strained the country's relationships with the EU and US who have repeatedly called for an end to what they say is a politically motivated persecution.

Brussels has said that it will monitor the situation in the Ukraine and that the sentence has put an end to a free-trade pact, an essential step towards their accession to the EU, the paper says.

According to the Irish Times Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, said, "we have noted with regret the outcome".

He added, "We stress the importance for the Ukrainian authorities to take concrete steps to address the systemic problems of the judiciary."

Tymoschenko's lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko condemned the decision saying, "These findings have no relation to justice . . . This is a decision of Yanukovich to keep Tymoshenko in prison," the paper reports.

He said that a full appeal would be filed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg by the end of the week.

The Telegraph says that Tymoschenko's daughter Yevgenia told reporters, "Today we again received a shameful decision which proves that a dictatorship is establishing itself in Ukraine."

However Sergey Tigipko, a vice prime minister of Ukraine,  told the Telegraph that there was no doubt about Tymoschenko's guilt saying, "It is clear to us there is a clear violation, this was a criminal case, not a political case".