Ukrainian prosecutors have seized the property of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko after she went on trial for abuse of power.
More than $200,000 worth of property of Tymoshenko ally Yuriy Lutsenko, a former interior minister also charged with abuse of office, has also been seized, Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Mykhaylo Havrylyuk told reporters on Thursday.
Tymoshenko, who lost the premiership following a vote of no confidence in March 2010, is charged with misusing $425 million the government received in 2009 from the selling of its carbon emission rights under the Kyoto protocol, as well as signing a disadvantageous gas deal with Russia that was ruinous for the Ukrainian economy.
Tymoshenko has dismissed the charges as political, saying she is being targeted for standing up to President Viktor Yanukovych, who beat her in the presidential election in February 2010.
She has filed a complaint at the European Court of Human Rights.
If convicted, the heroine of the 2004 Orange Revolution may be jailed for up to 10 years.
