A Ukrainian court decided on Wednesday not to detain former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko despite a request to do so by the prosecution at her trial on charges of abuse of office.
The prosecutor asked the court to place Tymoshenko under arrest rather than just maintain its current ban on her traveling outside Kiev, as he claimed she has been constantly disrupting order in the court room and deliberately procrastinating.
"The court rules against the (prosecutor's) appeal," the judge said.
Tymoshenko is being prosecuted for signing a 2009 gas contract with Russian gas company Gazprom which Kiev says is disadvantageous to Ukraine and which, according to the new government which came to power last year, Tymoshenko had no right to sign.
She also faces charges of misusing $425 million that her government received in 2009 from the selling its carbon emission rights under the Kyoto protocol. She faces up to ten years behind bars if found guilty.
Tymoshenko has repeatedly dismissed the charges as political, saying she is being targeted for opposing President Viktor Yanukovych, who beat her in the presidential election in February 2010.
The proceedings are continuing.
