Tymoshenko to file new court appeal

Lawyers for jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said they planned another appeal after she was sent to a penal colony on corruption charges. Serhiy Vlasenko, a lawyer for Tymoshenko, said after meeting with the jailed opposition leader that he planned another appeal. "We are planning the appeal and it will be lodged today or tomorrow," he was quoted on her Web site as saying. Tymoshenko lost a presidential election in 2010 to pro-Kremlin leader Viktor Yanukovych. She was sentenced last year to seven years in prison following a corruption conviction tied to a 2009 natural gas deal reached with Russia's Gazprom when she was Ukrainian prime minister. After losing a previous appeal, she was transferred last week to a penal colony in northeastern Ukraine. Her allies say the charges filed against her are part of a political ploy by the Yanukovych administration, a charge his government denies. Washington before the appeals court ruling pleaded for her release. British Minister for Europe David Lidington said the decision by a court of appeals in Kiev was an assault to justice. The trial, he said, was "subject to numerous and serious violations of legal principles."