KIEV, June 24 – BYT leader Yulia Tymoshenko has said the arrest of the former chairman of the Customs Service of Ukraine, Anatoliy Makarenko, is "political persecution."

"Yesterday the Security Service of Ukraine arrested Anatoliy Makarenko, the former head of the Customs Service, who worked in the [previous] government," she said at a press conference in Kiev on Thursday.

"The arrest of a man who held a top-ranking post in our government is linked to political persecution," Tymoshenko said.