CZECH REPUBLIC AUTHORITIES have granted political asylum to the husband of the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, after he argued that the Ukrainian government was pursuing a vendetta against him.

Oleksandr Tymoshenko, 51, left Ukraine in December after his wife was sentenced to seven years in prison for abusing her office by agreeing to an energy deal with Russia which saw Ukraine pay a high price for natural gas. The conviction has been condemned as politically motivated by international observers.

A spokeswoman for Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna Party, Natalya Lysova, said that Oleksandr Tymoshenko had been granted asylum because “the whole world has acknowledged a political prosecution of Yulia Vladimirovna Tymoshenko is taking place in Ukraine, and all the European countries and the United States have condemned it,” reports the Boston Globe.

The Batkivshchyna Party released a statement saying that the Ukrainian government had “chosen the dirtiest tactic: to break Yulia Tymoshenko by pressuring members of her family”. The statement went on to say that Oleksandr Tymoshenko’s decision to seek asylum in Czech Republic was “dictated by the desire to deprive the regime of mechanisms to pressure the leader of our party”.

Tymoshenko’s daughter, Eugenia, recently accused Ukrainian authorities of tapping her phone but has said that – as yet – she would not be seeking asylum, Euronews reports.

The move has placed more pressure on already strained relations between Ukraine and Czech Republic.

Read:  EU to “reflect” on Ukraine policies following Tymoshenko verdict>

Read: Concerns over motivation behind trial of former Ukrainian PM>