{"id":30438,"date":"2019-01-24T17:23:43","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T17:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30438"},"modified":"2019-01-24T17:23:43","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T17:23:43","slug":"ukraines-viktor-yanukovich-gets-13-year-jail-term-for-treason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30438","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovich gets 13-year jail term for ‘treason’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Ukrainian court has sentenced former president Viktor Yanukovich to 13 years in prison for treason – attempting to quash a 2014 popular uprising.<\/p>\n

Yanukovich\u00a0<\/span>was charged with high treason for asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to send Russian troops to Ukraine after he fled the ex-Soviet country.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Yanukovich committed a crime against the foundation of Ukraine’s national security,” Judge Vladyslav Devyatko said in Kiev’s Obolon district court on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The 68-year-old had faced up to 15 years in prison but never attended the trial and is believed to be living in Russia after fleeing in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Secret court document exposes state looting in Ukraine<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The uprising ousted Yanukovich and brought to power President Petro Poroshenko, who faces an uphill battle for re-election in March.<\/p>\n

The authorities beefed up security around the court as judges took turns to read out their ruling.<\/p>\n

The court in Kiev has been holding hearings on the case since 2017.<\/p>\n

Yanukovich faces a number of other criminal probes including usurpation of power and using force against demonstrators.<\/p>\n

In late 2013, the Moscow-backed president sparked massive protests when he refused, at the last minute, to sign an association accord forging closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union.<\/p>\n

After Yanukovich fled, Putin revealed a special operation organised by Moscow infiltrated the Ukrainian leader.<\/p>\n

Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 and supported an uprising by Russian-speaking separatists in the east of the ex-Soviet country.<\/p>\n

The conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 10,000 lives despite repeated international efforts to forge a lasting ceasefire.<\/p>\n

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\nAuthorities beefed up security around the court as judges took turns to read out their ruling on Thursday [<\/span>Sergey Dolzhenko\/EPA]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Ukrainian court has sentenced former president Viktor Yanukovich to 13 years in prison for treason – attempting to quash a 2014 popular uprising. Yanukovich\u00a0was charged with high treason for asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to send Russian troops to Ukraine after he fled the ex-Soviet country. “Yanukovich committed a crime against the foundation of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}