Extension of Makarenko, Didenko arrest is political repression, says Tymoshenko's Bloc

20:50

The Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko is outraged at the decision of Pechersky District Court of Kyiv to extend the arrest of former head of the State Customs Service Anatoliy Makarenko and former first deputy head of Naftogaz Ukraine Ihor Didenko until October 10.

"The authorities are continuing political repression against the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, which is in opposition to the ruling team," the BYT said in a statement released on Friday.

"In such a way they are avenging on honest and highly experienced employees just because they had the courage to return to the state the gas, on which a criminal group led by Viktor Yanukovych has laid its claims," the statement reads.

The BYT also said that the court decisions on Makarenko and Didenko have rather political than judicial nature. They are in fact "political manifestoes, written not in court, but in Yanukovych's administration," the statement said.

"The recent ruling of Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv, which ordered Naftogaz Ukrainy to return 12.1 billion cubic meters of gas RosUkrEnergo by September 1 was also made there," the BYT said.