A key Ukrainian anti-government figure, former deputy prime minister Yulia Timoshenko, has been re-arrested after having been provisionally freed on Tuesday, judicial officials said Saturday.
The Kiev city tribunal on Friday overturned an earlier ruling by a district court that ordered Mrs Timoshenko's release on bail," deputy state prosecutor Mikola Obikhod told AFP.
Timoshenko had been in jail since mid-February on a corruption charge.
Taken to hospital after her release for treatment of an ulcer, she was still receiving medical care while under police surveillance, Obikhod said.
He refused to say when she might be returned to prison.
The Interfax news agency said Timoshenko blamed the latest court decision on an interview she gave on Friday criticizing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma after meeting with representatives of the Council of Europe.
Ukrainian prosecutors charged Timoshenko in early January with smuggling and falsifying documents.
The former energy chief, who is 40, was accused of importing nearly three billion cubic metres (100 billion cubic feet) of Russian gas in 1996 using forged documents and hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.
After being charged, Timoshenko was initially set free but barred from leaving Kiev without permission from the prosecutor's office.
Timoshenko has denied the charges, saying she is the victim of "foul political machinations."
Timoshenko was sacked by Kuchma, himself embroiled in a scandal over the murder of an opposition journalist, on January 19.
Analysts believe the charges against Timoshenko are designed to weaken the opposition, which is demanding Kuchma's resignation – KIEV (AFP)
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