Women bare breasts at Ukrainian court to support Tymoshenko

THE Ukrainian women’s group, Femen, took its distinctive brand of protest to the trial of ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko when two activists climbed atop a police wagon outside the court and bared their breasts.

The action by the group, whose activists regularly stage topless public protests to dramatise their causes, surprised scores of police who were keeping an eye on a nearby rally by pro-Tymoshenko supporters.

The pair clambered on to the roof of the prison van parked near the Kiev city centre courtroom, removed their blouses and jeered at police and the country’s politicians who, they said, belonged inside the vehicle themselves.

The protest brought some light relief to the trial of Tymoshenko, who is charged with abuse of office over a gas deal signed with Russia in 2009 while she was prime minister. The leadership of President Viktor Yanukovich says the deal saddled Ukraine with too high a price for its gas imports.

Femen regularly protests over women’s rights and covers a range of causes, from campaigning against sex tourism in Ukraine to the treatment of women in parts of the Middle East.

It takes up an anti-establishment position inside Ukraine and has been as critical of Tymoshenko’s record as a politician in the past, as it has of Yanukovich, whose off-colour remarks about women have provided it with pretexts for protests.

A spokesman for Kiev city police said the two young women had beendetained for “hooliganism”.