KIEV, August 7 (Itar-Tass) — A tent camp in Kiev put up by supporters of Ukraine’s ex-prime minister and leader of the Batkivshchyna party Yulia Timoshenko, who was taken into custody late on Friday on office abuse charges, will not be pulled down, the party’s deputy head, Alexander Turchinov said on Sunday.
“I was assured that tents and people will not be touched,” said Timoshenko’s right hand, who leads the camp’ s defense.
Parliamentarians from the Timoshenko bloc who spent the night in the tent camp are being changed by their party fellows. Police cordoned off Kiev’s central street Kreshchatik and fenced entries to the building of the Pechersky District Court that is hearing the Timoshenko case.
Police explained that such measures are being taken to prevent protesters from entering the traffic way – on Monday, the ex-prime minister will be convoyed to the court.
Last night Kiev’s district administrative court fulfilled the claim of the Kiev mayor office and banned mass actions in front of the Pechersky District Court that sanctioned to arrest Timoshenko and place her to the Lukyanovsky detention centre until August 31. Soon after this five buses with special task force groups were parked near the tent camp.
Supporters of Timoshenko set up a camp of 30 tents overnight from Friday to Saturday.