Ukraine again delays trial over Tymoshenko tax case

The Ukrainian court on Monday put off until November 13 the hearing over jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's tax evasion and embezzlement charges, local media reported. The court in the city of Kharkov in eastern Ukraine has ruled it impossible to hear the case in absence of Tymoshenko who was unable to appear in the court due to her poor health. In turn, the Tymoshenko's defense team expressed distrust in trial judge Kostyantyn Sadovsky, arguing that he "deliberately distorting the facts." Tymoshenko's trial has been delayed nine times due to her treatment for severe back pains in out-of-prison health center in Kharkov. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 for abuse of power in a natural gas deal with Russia in 2009. In April 2012, she was accused of embezzling an estimated 405 million U.S. dollars and evading tax worth more than 87,000 dollars in the 1990s.