Commissioner visits Ukraine ex-PM in jail

(KIEV) - EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule visited former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in prison after her jailing sparked a crisis between Ukraine and the West, officials said Tuesday.

In a highly unusual step, Fule met Tymoshenko at the Lukyanovsky jail in Kiev where she has begun serving her seven year jail sentence for abuse of power after a trial which was vehemently criticised by the European Union.

"I was glad to have the opportunity of a private conversation with Yulia Tymoshenko, and to talk to her about her health condition and about the developments in her case," he said in a statement after Monday's visit.

"I informed her about the EU's concerns regarding this process and assured her that we would continue to follow closely her appeal and would insist upon the need for her to benefit from of all her rights to defend herself in a fair process."

A Kiev court on Tuesday resumed hearing Tymoshenko's appeal against her jail term, which she insists was ordered by President Viktor Yanukovych as punishment for daring to oppose his rule.

There has also been growing alarm over her health, which her supporters say has left her bed-ridden with chronic back problems. Tymoshenko was not in court for the appeal due to her state of health.

"Her health means that she cannot move on her own," said her lawyer Sergiy Vlasenko.

However over 1,500 of her supporters staged a noisy demonstration outside the courthouse, whistling, brandishing portraits of the opposition leader and waving the flags of her party.

They shouted "Freedom for Yulia!" and "Down with the criminal gang!", in reference to the government.

A group of dozens of protestors managed to break into the courtyard of the building, breaking a gate, before being forced back by some of the hundreds of anti-riot police who were deployed to keep order.

Inside the court, Tymoshenko's daughter Evgenia Carr was present alongside her lawyers.

On his two-day visit that ended Tuesday, Fule also held talks with Yanukovych and said he had raised his concerns with the Ukrainian leader, expressing alarm over "recent cases of selective justice in Ukraine."

His visit comes ahead of a planned December 19 summit in Kiev between Ukraine and EU leaders that had been scheduled to agree the first steps for the country towards joining the European Union.

But with the dispute over Tymoshenko's jailing showing no sign of calming, it remains unclear if the summit will take place at all.

Fule said the aim of his visit "was to prepare the ground for the EU-Ukraine Summit on 19 December."

But Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite had said on a visit to Kiev in November that a review of Tymoshenko's conviction should be a condition of the summit taking place.

Fule said that Tymoshenko had herself urged a swift deal over an Association Agreement, which would be the first step towards Ukraine joining the EU and was supposed to be a centrepiece of the summit.