KIEV, Dec. 27 – Former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who was arrested on Sunday, will spend two months behind bars as prosecutors prepare two cases against him, according to a Monday court ruling.

The arrest, seen by some lawmakers as the politically motivated prosecution of an opposition leader, was justified by the government as a crackdown on corruption.

The prosecutors earlier this month charged Lutsenko with abuse of power while in office for allegedly illegally hiring and promoting a driver at the interior ministry.

But they recently started another investigation, questioning Lutsenko’s order in 2009 to continue surveillance against a person suspected of having been involved in poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, a former president, in 2004.

“What they did was a total idiotism,” Lutsenko told Ukrayinska Pravda at a court hearing on Monday. “They arrested me in the case that provides absolutely no reason for that.”

“How can I continue abusing power if I haven’t been holding the post for almost a year now?” Lutsenko said. “So they scratched their heads overnight, and changed the reason for the arrest.”

The prosecutors asked the court on Monday to extend the arrest for two months apparently to force Lutsenko to start reading thousands of pages of charges into his alleged illegal hiring and promotion of the driver.

The investigation charges Lutsenko with overspending “especially large amounts” - thousands of hryvnias in salary and bonuses for the driver - over the course of several years.

Lutsenko must read the charges through before the prosecutors can submit them to court seeking a jail sentence for him.

Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and the leader of the largest opposition party in Ukraine, said the charges against Lutsenko show that the authorities unleashed persecution against the opposition.

“Now, it is not just the attack, it’s a terror,” Tymoshenko said in a statement. “They believe if they remove us, they will have full access to robbing Ukraine.”

“I want to appeal to everybody: be strong and don’t have any fear of mafia,” Tymoshenko said. “Mafia is only couple tens of people, but we are 46 million.”

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov argued on Monday that the arrest of opposition figures was not persecution, but a battle against corruption.

“I am not bloodthirsty. I don’t need this,” Azarov said at a press conference. “But an elementary order must be set in the country.” (tl/ez)