KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine's highest court on Tuesday postponed hearing former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's appeal of her conviction and seven-year sentence on charges of abusing her powers in signing a gas deal with Russia.
Prosecutors argued that the appeal should be postponed because Tymoshenko is undergoing medical treatment for a back condition in a hospital in Kharkiv, the city where she is imprisoned, and would be unable to appear in court in Kiev, the capital.
In ruling in favor of the prosecution, the High Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases set a new date of June 26, which falls near the end of the European soccer championship.
Some European Union officials and governments have vowed to boycott the games in Ukraine over Tymoshenko's imprisonment, which the EU and U.S. have condemned as politically motivated.
Tymoshenko has accused President Viktor Yanukovych, her longtime rival who narrowly defeated her in the 2010 presidential election, of throwing her into jail to prevent her from posing a challenge in October parliamentary elections.
Tymoshenko's lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko condemned the postponement.
"Today's decision is complete nonsense on the level of the country's highest court," he told reporters. "Today, Yanukovych has again spat in the face of Europe."
He said the delay was aimed at preventing Tymoshenko from appealing to the European Court of Human Rights, which can be done only after the appeals process has been exhausted at home, but Vlasenko said they would go ahead and do so anyway.
