KIEV: A Ukraine appeals court on Friday upheld the guilty verdict and seven-year jail sentence imposed on former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko over abuse-of-office charges in a case that has soured Ukraines ties with the West.
The ruling suggests Tymoshenko, an opposition leader whose party is one of the key contenders in the October 2012 parliamentary election, is unlikely to go free in the near future.
The court has left the (original) ruling unchanged, a spokeswoman for the appeals court said.
Tymoshenko, the fiercest opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich, was sentenced in October for overstepping her powers in forcing through a gas deal with Russia in 2009.
The European Union this week put off signing agreements on political association and free trade with Ukraine, citing Tymoshenkos case as an example of selective justice.
Tymoshenko, who has denied any wrong doing, had boycotted the appeal trial calling it biased. She has filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights which plans to fast-track it.
Tymoshenko, 51, twice served as prime minister after leading the 2004 Orange Revolution which ruined Yanukovichs first bid for the presidency. Yanukovich, who beat her in the 2010 presidential run-off, said this week he had nothing to do with her case and it was up to the courts and lawmakers to decide Tymoshenkos fate.
Ukraines parliament, which is dominated by Yanukovichs supporters, on Thursday voted against considering an amendment that would have struck her alleged offense from the criminal code.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/24/2011 00:00 ||
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Fair amount of sympathy for her by the EU. Did she do the crime she was charged with? Or is this a lot of sympathy for a hot looking blonde that happens to really like Russia?
The Obama administrations deal to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuel for Navy jets comes at a cost of up to nine times higher than regular fuel, a spokesman for Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said, coming at a time when the U.S. military is already facing deep budget cuts.
Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and former chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has supported biofuel projects in the past, but has problems with a program the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of the Navy announced earlier this month one that would pay $26 per gallon for a special biofuel for Navy jets; $16 per gallon when mixed with regular jet fuel.
Sen. Inhofes concern in this particular case as it deals with the Department of Defense is that the alternative is cost prohibitive, Inhofe spokesman Jared Young said.
Of late, our nations military has had to endure $500 billion in budget cuts, and if the sequestration happens as a result of the super committees failure to reach a deal, it would mean an additional $500 billion in cuts to our nations military.
The Navy entered the contract with Louisiana-based Dynamic Fuels for $12 million for aviation fuel. Dynamic Fuels is a partnership of three firms, Solazyme, Syntroleum and Tyson Foods.
Solazyme previously received $21.7 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus, to build a biorefinery. T.J. Glauthier is listed on the Solazyme website as a strategic advisor for the company. Glauthier served on President Obamas White House transition team, where he focused on energy issues for the recovery act, according to the Solazyme website.
The Department of Defense should not purchase alternative fuels that are priced 9 time higher than conventional fuels --$26.75 per gallon to approximately $2.85 per gallon -- because those extra costs will further eat away at other necessary budget items such as operations, maintenance, training, and modernization, Young continued in a written statement. In addition, the alternative fuel is less available on the front lines, making its use more restrictive.
On Dec. 5, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that the Defense Logistics Agency had signed contracts to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuel the largest purchase of biofuel by the federal government in history.
Mixing the biofuel with conventional fuel will help keep the price to less than what it could be, say $16 per gallon, but thats still expensive, said Dan Simmons of the Institute for Energy Research.
This is one of the underreported aspects. It isnt just $16 per gallon, Simmons said. It was actually $26 a gallon for the biofuel, but they mixed it with more moderately priced fuel. If you do the math that comes out to $1,000 a barrel for that fuel, which is just incredibly expensive.
In August, the administration announced their intentions to spend $510 million during the next three years to buy advanced drop-in biofuel for military transportation. In lieu of congressional authorization to spend that much, the administration used existing authority for this initiative without congressional authorization. The purchase is part of the Obama administrations We Cant Wait, initiative, which involves bypassing Congress when possible. Syntroleum was created by an oilman, but taken over by SLH Corporation, who forced the oilman out, and became deeply involved with Enron. Tyson Foods at one point had leaked an executive memo detailing a price list of bribes to be offered at every level of the Arkansas State government. So the entire deal is full of Democrat insiders, scoundrels and schemers.
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