Case against Tymoshenko collapsing?

KIEV, Ukraine, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The case against Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has collapsed "completely," her lawyer claimed from Kiev.

Tymoshenko is charged with corruption stemming from a 2009 gas deal with Russia she helped broker while serving as prime minister. The current government claims the deal struck a blow to the Ukrainian economy, though Tymoshenko's allies complain the case is politically motivated.

Sergey Vlasenko, the former prime minister's lawyer, said discrepancies on what sort of documents were actually signed by his client means "the 24 volumes" of documents in the case against her were invalid.

"The case against Tymoshenko has fallen apart completely," he was quoted by Tymoshenko's Web site as saying.

He said the prosecution accused Tymoshenko of singlehandedly handing over directives to state energy company Naftogaz. He said her signature isn't on the documents, however, claiming it was actually stamped on the directives.

"Let the prosecutor's office now figure out who stamped the signature -- that's their job," he said.

European officials accuse Kiev of practicing selective justice in Tymoshenko's case. In written statements to The Independent newspaper in London, she said in August the government of her rival Viktor Yanukovych will face the same fate as other authoritarian regimes.

"Sooner or later the oppressed people of this nation will arise," she wrote from her prison cell in Kiev.