“Yesterday I had, for the first time in my life, a temperature over 40 degrees. Right now, I also feel very bad, very bad. But I came to court to continue defending the truth,” Tymoshenko said.
The lawmaker added that her current body temperature is 39 degrees, but she will appear in court “in any condition.”
News outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported that more than one-third of the required bail amount has already been paid for Tymoshenko, for whom the court chose pretrial release on bail. Of that sum, 5 million hryvnias ($115,600) was provided by Serhiy Rabchuk and another 8.65 million hryvnias ($200,000) by Oksana Fetisova, both linked to one of Batkivshchyna faction’s main sponsors, MP Kostiantyn Bondariev.
Tymoshenko is suspected of offering bribes to lawmakers for votes in the Verkhovna Rada. On Jan. 14, NABU released audio recordings in which a woman’s voice, likely Tymoshenko’s, discusses amounts and gives instructions to vote for or against specific bills, including those related to appointments or dismissals.
During the Jan. 16 High Anti-Corruption Court hearing, Tymoshenko said another lawmaker on the NABU recordings is Servant of the People MP Ihor Kopytin, who she claimed staged a “provocation” against her on the bureau’s orders. She rejected all corruption accusations and called the NABU audio false.
The politician faces up to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property (Part 4 of Article 369 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code). The High Anti-Corruption Court set Tymoshenko’s bail at 33,280,000 hryvnias ($769,308).
The lawmaker said she will appeal the court’s decision and turn to “friends and colleagues” for help with the bail.