Ukraine ex-PM Tymoshenko freed
22 February 2014 Last updated at 11:43 ET
An icon of two uprisings, Ms Tymoshenko is on her way to rejoin protesters in the capital
Ukraine ex-PM Tymoshenko freed
An icon of two uprisings, Ms Tymoshenko is on her way to rejoin protesters in the capital
The Ukrainian opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, has been freed from jail.
It follows a vote by parliament to release her after President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital Kiev.
Speaking after her release, she said "the dictatorship has fallen".
She was sentenced to seven years in jail in 2011 after a controversial verdict on her actions as prime minister.
The glamorous, fiery orator who helped lead the Orange Revolution - Ukraine's revolt against a controversial election in 2004 - was convicted of criminally exceeding her powers when she agreed a gas deal with Russia which was seen to have disadvantaged Ukraine.
She has always insisted the charges were untrue, inspired by Mr Yanukovych, the man she helped oust in 2004 who returned to defeat her in the 2010 presidential election.
The European Union had demanded her release as one of the conditions of the EU-Ukraine trade pact that President Yanukovych rejected last year - triggering the protests that led to the current crisis.
Olha Lappo, spokeswoman for the Fatherland party Ms Tymoshenko leads, said she was heading from prison in the eastern city of Kharkiv to the capital Kiev to join protesters there.
Her release was made possible by a European-brokered peace deal between her President Yanukovych and the opposition on Friday.
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