KIEV, Ukraine, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- A Ukrainian prosecutor said former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko should be jailed for seven years on corruption charges and pay $195 million in damages.
Tymoshenko is on trial for corruption charges stemming for a gas deal she helped broker in 2009. The deal ended a Russian blockade on gas deliveries while she was prime minister.
The current government says the deal damaged the battered Ukrainian economy.
Prosecutor Liliya Frolova called for jail time, a $195 million fine and a ban on Tymoshenko holding a position in the public sector for three years after her release.
"We urge to sentence Yulia Tymoshenko to seven-year imprisonment," the prosecutor was quoted by Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti as saying.
Many of Tymoshenko's Western allies have claimed the charges against her are politically motivated.
Tymoshenko on her Web site quotes Elmar Brok, a German member of the European Parliament, as saying the case against the Ukrainian leader is being tried under criminal codes "from the days of (Soviet Premier Joseph) Stalin."
