The court hearing of a case against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko concerning financial abuse within the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) Corporation has been adjourned until January 18, 2013.

"The court announces a break in the hearing until 1600 on January 18," the presiding judge in the trial on the case, Kostiantyn Sadovsky, announced in Kharkiv on Tuesday.

During the court hearing, the state prosecutor said that it was impossible to hear the case in the absence of the defendant.

In turn, Tymoshenko's defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko stated that the ex-premier was not taken to court.

"Unfortunately, she is not a free person, who can [choose to] attend [the hearing], or not," he said.

Vlasenko supported Tymoshenko's motion for the closure of the criminal case due to the lack of elements of crime, and cited twice the ruling of the Supreme Court dated November 11, 2005 on the closure of the UESU case due to the absence of elements of crime.

The ex-premier's second defense lawyer Oleksandr Plakhotniuk expressed the same position.

Two other defense lawyers of Tymoshenko, Andriy Kozhemiakin and Yevhenia Tymoshenko, were absent from the court room.

Judge Sadovsky ruled that it is impossible to consider the case without the defendant and said that the motion will be considered on a relevant stage of the trial with the participation of Tymoshenko.