KIEV, July 26 — Special police troops, called by Judge Rodion Kireyev, broke into a Kiev courtroom Tuesday and dragged out all supporters of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, marking a serious escalation of tensions at the trial.

The supporters, mostly lawmakers, were ejected from the court after engaging in a brief confrontation with the judge and after chanting “Shame!” in the courtroom.

The lawmakers reacted angrily to Kireyev’s refusal to give Tymoshenko three days for hiring a new defense team after her lawyers had suddenly quit the case, citing inadequate time given them to prepare.

“You are worse than fascist!” Tymoshenko said addressing Kireyev in the courtroom. “Even fascists have given people the right for defense.”

“I will never rise in front of you. You’re not your honor, you’re your dishonor! I don’t respect you! The whole country does not respect you!” Tymoshenko said in her speech. “This is not a trial. It’s a mock trial. You personally are a cheap executor of a political order. You are a marionette of the mafia!”

The tensions escalated sharply after Kireyev, without any obvious reason, had repeatedly refused to give Tymoshenko’s lawyers more time to read through the case file.

The lawyers asked for about two months to read through 16 volumes of the file, while Kireyev had refused to give more than three days.

After the lawyers quit the trial on Tuesday, Kireyev had also refused to give Tymoshenko three days to hire new attorneys despite a norm in the criminal code that allows her to hire the new defense team.

“This norm calls for allowing the defendant a three-day term to hire other attorneys, or even to hire the same lawyers,” said Mykola Siriy, one of Tymoshenko’s lawyers who quit on Tuesday. “The law allows doing so.”

Meanwhile, Tymoshenko’s critics said the lawyers had quit as part of their strategy to delay the case by any means, and quitting-and-hiring allows legally delaying the case indefinitely.

“The behavior of the former prime minister and the lawyers shows that they have an orchestrated plan,” Inna Bohoslovska, a lawmaker and a member of the pro-government Regions Party, said. “They are taking every opportunity to delay the trial.”

A speedy trial – and a guilty verdict - would benefit Tymoshenko’s political opponents by making her ineligible for running for a seat in Parliament ahead of the October 2012 elections.

Delaying the trial – perhaps by October - would give Tymoshenko greater political clout as undecided political and legal figures may switch allegiances betting that her party would win many seats in Parliament.

A seat in Parliament gives any lawmaker immunity from prosecution in Ukraine.

“Everyone knows that Tymoshenko is rich and a very able woman,” Bohoslovska said. “Everybody understands that if she really wanted to have the best lawyer she would have already gotten one, perhaps even more than one.”

Legal analysts said that taking into account a rapid pace of the trial currently maintained by Kireyev, the verdict against Tymoshenko may be announced as soon as in August.

Tymoshenko is facing up to 10 years in jail for allegedly exceeding her authority as the prime minister in January 2009 by ordering Oleh Dubyna, then head of Naftogaz Ukrayiny, to sign the 10-year gas agreement with Russia.

The agreement set prices for Russian gas for Ukraine higher than for the rest of Europe.

Tymoshenko, with cooperation from her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, also eliminated Swiss-based gas trader RosUkrEnergo from being the only gas supplier to Ukraine. RosUkrEnergo is co-owned by Gazprom and by Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash, a Tymoshenko foe.

The gas agreement replaced RosUkrEnergo with Gazprom as the only gas supplier to Ukraine.

Tymoshenko has dismissed the charges as politically motivated. (tl/ez)