Tymoshenko's daughter arrives in U.S.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- The daughter of jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko arrived in the United States to attend a hearing on European affairs, the leader said.

Tymoshenko, the opposition leader and a former prime minister, is serving a seven-year prison sentence following a conviction on charges she abused her authority when she helped secure a natural gas deal with Russian energy company Gazprom.

Her daughter, Eugenia Tymoshenko, is attend a U.S. Senate hearing on Ukraine and broader European affairs through Friday, the former prime minister's Web site announced.

Tymoshenko is to appear alongside members of the former prime minister's opposition party.

The Yanukovych government claims the 2009 gas deal brokered with Tymoshenko's help hurt a Ukrainian economy already bruised by the global recession.

Tymoshenko, in a letter sent last week to her opposition party from her jail cell, claimed the country's "dictatorship" would collapse. Her supporters say the charges against her are politically motivated.

The government of the Czech Republic granted political asylum to Oleksandr Tymoshenko, husband of the jailed former prime minister, in early January. He filed his asylum request citing the potential for harassment.