Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko
Ukrainian opposition party leader Yulia Tymoshenko reacts as the parliament approves her nomination as prime minister - in a 373-0 vote - in Kiev, in this Feb. 4, 2005 file photo.
After her conviction and jailing for abuse of power, following a trial that international organizations (including the European Union) characterized as politically motivated, Tymoshenko was freed on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014, following months of unrest in her nation's capital. The parliament also voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from power.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
Yulia Tymoshenko
Ukrainian opposition leader Julia Tymoshenko in September 2002.
Born in 1960, Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko was a businesswoman whose ventures included the nation's gas industry. She was elected to the nation's parliament in 1996, eventually becoming a leader in a nascent opposition party against then-President Leonid Kuchma. In 2001 she was fired by Kuchma from her position as deputy prime minister responsible for the gas and energy sector.
During Yulia Tymoshenko's early political career she was arrested and charged with forging documents and smuggling gas; a court found no basis to the charges. Her husband, businessman Oleksandr Tymoshenko, was also arrested and charged with embezzlement. A court threw out the case, but Oleksandr went into hiding, fearing further prosecution. Yulia Tymoshenko maintained the government's cases against them amounted to political intimidation.
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Pope Benedict XVI meets with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at his library on October 16, 2009 in Vatican City.
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A picture released by Yulia Tymoshenko's press service shows the former Ukrainian Prime Minister gesturing from a prison window in Kiev on November 4, 2011. Tymoshenko egged on her supporters from her prison cell today, in her first appearance since her controversial jailing over abuse of office charges last month. She poked her hand between the bars, waved and blew kisses to a handful of supporters who had gathered outside the prison, chanting "Freedom to Yulia," in her first appearance since being jailed on October 11.