Prison, persecution and football: How Ukraine's Euro 2012 dream turned sour
By James Montague, CNN
May 8, 2012 -- Updated 1510 GMT (2310 HKT)
Next month sees the start of football's European Championships, arguably the toughest competition in world football. Ukraine will co-host the event with Poland, but it has been overshadowed by the treatment of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been in prison since last October on charges of abuse of power.
Europe's Ukrainian dilemma
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- As Euro 2012 approaches, co-hosts Ukraine under fire over jailing of ex-PM
- Yulia Tymoshenko alleges they are political charges and that she was beaten in prison
- EU leaders are boycotting the finals over her treatment
- CNN talks to her daughter Eugenia and asks what went wrong?
(CNN) -- No one used the word reward, but the subtext was clear for all to see.
In April 2007, when Poland and Ukraine were surprisingly awarded the right to co-host the 2012 European Championship -- one of international football's top tournaments after the World Cup -- both countries' delegations exploded with joy.
For the Ukrainians it was especially poignant. At the center of the celebrations was President Viktor Yushchenko, who had come to power leading the 2004 Orange Revolution, ignited when the election battle between him and the then Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was allegedly riddled with fraud.
Massive street protests swept away the old regime, whose last desperate attempt to cling on to power, according to supporters of Yushchenko, was a plot to poison the challenger. Yushchenko barely survived.
But survive he did, and the chance to host Euro 2012 was redemption. Ukraine was finally, post communism, moving towards democracy and the rule of law. Euro 2012 represented a chance, as the Olympics did in Seoul and Tokyo decades before, for sport to welcome Ukraine into the club of free nations.
Tymoshenko claims beatings in jail
Daughter on Tymoshenko's jail ordeal
Former Ukrainian PM found guilty
Shevchenko wants to end on high note
"We will be able to show millions of fans the unforgettable charm of our cities and the history they have preserved so beautifully," Yushchenko said when Ukraine's joint bid was selected to host the tournament.
"And put on display of Slav hospitality and culture."
A coronation
The final in Kiev on July 1, 2012, was to be the coronation. But with a month to go until Ukraine was to enjoy its moment in the sun, Yushchenko's words ring hollow. He was voted out of power in 2010, his Orange Revolution unraveling as, according to his supporters, the new president Yanukovych -- ironically the man he defeated in 2004 -- tries to roll back the gains made eight years ago.
And far from highlighting Ukraine's development, Euro 2012 has done the opposite. Instead European statesmen and women are boycotting the event as the blond heroine of the Orange Revolution, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, languishes in a prison cell thanks to what her supporters claim are spurious political charges.
Last week her family released pictures of what they say is proof that Tymoshenko was beaten up in prison, which the Ukrainian government denies.
"Her condition is worsening, her physical condition," her daughter Eugenia Tymoshenko told CNN.
"That was after eight days of hunger strike. She was already much weaker because of the attacks when they beat her on April 20. Because of her protest her morale is very strong (but) we have asked her to stop her hunger strike."
Tymoshenko has been in prison since October last year. She received a seven-year sentence for abuse of power over the signing of a gas deal with Russia that the current president deemed detrimental to the national interest. But few outside of Ukraine saw it as anything other than the persecution of a political rival.
"Once she was arrested, there was a whole machine that started working," said Eugenia.
