KIEV, January 22 (RIA Novosti) - Outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sent a letter to jailed former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, saying the US supports her “immediate release,” Tymoshenko’s party said on Tuesday.
“The United States supports your immediate release. I hope the new year brings new prospects for your release and wish you a return to good health," the letter, released by Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, reads.
Tymoshenko, once the main political opponent of President Viktor Yanukovych, was sentenced in October 2011 to seven years in prison for abuse of office after negotiating an allegedly unfavorable gas deal between Russia and Ukraine in January 2009.
Last Friday Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said Tymoshenko was officially notified about being a suspect in the 1996 killing of Ukrainian businessman and lawmaker Yevhen Shcherban. She faces life in prison if convicted.
