Tymoshenko: fears for safety in prison

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, detained on August 5 following a motion by prosecutors, is afraid of being killed while in prison, Tymoshenko told EUobserver in an interview, published late on Friday. Tymoshenko is accused of damaging Ukraine's national interests by signing "unfair" gas supply deals with Russia as prime minister in 2009 and faces up to 10 years in jail. Currently Ukraine's leading opposition figure, Tymoshenko has denied all the charges against her, saying they are politically motivated. "Of course I do," Tymoshenko answered EUobserver's question whether she had any fears about her personal safety while in detention. "I am aware of the Stalinist saying that you get rid of the man, you get rid of the problem. There have been too many 'accidents' in the past like the supposed suicide of former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko who somehow seemed to have shot himself in the head twice," she added. Kravchenko was found dead in March, 2005 one hour before he was to testify about the 10-year-old unsolved murder of opposition journalist Georgiy Gongadze. In March 2011, Ukrainian former president Leonid Kuchma was officially charged over the killing of Gongadze.