Ukrainian court on Tuesday sentenced former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office in relation to a 2009 gas deal with Russia that she brokered, a case regarded widely in the West as politically orchestrated.
Judge Rodion Kireyev handed down the sentence -- the maximum sought by state prosecutors -- at the end of a three-month trial that has polarized society in the ex-Soviet republic and risks undermining Ukraine's relations with the West.