A judge in Kiev has decided not to release Yulia Tymoshenko (August 10), the Ukraine opposition leader who was jailed for contempt of court after being charged with abuse of power. Thousands of her supporters have continued street demonstrations, calling the arrest politically motivated and a challenge to Ukraine’s Orange Revolution.

Tymoshenko was expected to be the main opposition candidate in next year’s presidential elections. In 2010 she lost the presidential race to Viktor Yanukovych after rising to fame in the 2004 revolt that overthrew Yanukovych.

Four European Union countries, once part of the Soviet Union, have also protested the arrest: the Czech Republic, Hungary Poland and Slovakia. The United States has called the arrest politically motivated and is demanding her immediate release.

Tymoshenko and some 400 other officials are under investigation for crimes allegedly committed while in office. Specifically the former Prime Minister is accused of abuse of power by illegally agreeing to a contract with Russia that ended its winter gas cutoff to Ukraine.

The EU has said the Tymoshenko deal helped Europe at a time when gas imports had been blocked but further criticism could endanger the signing of a proposed association agreement, a key step on the path to EU membership which Kiev hoped to sign this year. 

During the initial court hearing the presiding judge ordered Tymoshenko to be placed under arrest for contempt of court after she refused to rise for the judge and for allegedly mocking witnesses.

Tymoshenko had told the court "I declare you a puppet of the presidential office. You don't have the right to consider this case. You are fully integrated into a system of political repression directed by authorities."