A criminal case into the inappropriate use of government funds has been opened against Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime minister and current opposition leader said on Wednesday.
"I have just learned from investigators that a criminal case has been initiated against me personally," Tymoshenko told journalists on Wednesday, adding that she was suspected of the "serious crime" of spending "money intended for ecological programs on pensions."
"[Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych... will have to take responsibility for each act of repression against the genuine opposition, as well as for what he is doing today to all Ukrainian citizens," Tymoshenko said, speaking to journalists outside the Prosecutor General's Office.
The opposition leader said she was ordered to reappear at the investigative department again on December 20.
"If they have opened a criminal case into the payment of pensions, I think these authorities will want to go even further. But no one will let them," she added.
Tymoshenko moved to the opposition after her government was dissolved in March following presidential elections narrowly won by her rival Yanukovych. The opposition has strongly criticized the Yanukovych government over its "anti-Ukrainian" and "pro-Russian" policies.
KIEV, December 15 (RIA Novosti)
