Court again rejects Tymoshenko's petition to withdraw judge

The Pechersky District Court of Kyiv has again rejected a petition filed by former Ukrainian Prime Minister and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko regarding the withdrawal of Judge Rodion Kireyev who is considering a criminal case against her on Friday.

Tymoshenko's counsel MP Serhiy Vlasenko of the BYT-Batkivschyna faction earlier said that "all the system breaches of the Criminal Procedure Code by the judge indicate that he is biased," and noted that Judge Kireyev took a number of procedural decisions while staying in the conference room, which is, in his opinion, a violation of the law. He also said the judge hadn't granted a single petition in the case and accused Kireyev of selectively applying the articles of the Criminal Procedure Code and manipulating them.

Tymoshenko supported Vlasenko's statement.

The court earlier rejected a similar request by the ex-premier and her lawyer to withdraw Judge Kireyev.