KIEV, July 21 — Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, on trial for ordering the signing of a controversial natural gas agreement with Russia in January 2009, said Thursday her lawyers need more time to examine the case.

Tymoshenko made the comment a day before the trial was due to resume following a three-day break given to let her two new lawyers prepare for the case.

“Tomorrow is the mock trial,” Tymoshenko said in the comments posted on her Twitter account. “The lawyers, over the past three days read through two volumes of the case out of 16. They are not ready for the trial.”

Mykola Siriy and Oleksandr Plakhotniuk are the two new lawyers that joined Tymoshenko’s defense team on Monday after Judge Rodion Kireyev expelled Serhiy Vlasenko, her top lawyer, from the court for the rest of the trial.

The removal of Vlasenko and the appointment of the two new lawyers may mark a change of Tymoshenko’s legal strategy that may be aimed at delaying the trial at all costs.

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, at least through 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.

Tymoshenko is accused of exceeding her authority by ordering Oleh Dubyna, then head of Naftogaz Ukrayiny, to sign the 10-year gas agreement with Russia that had set prices for Russian gas for Ukraine higher than for the rest of Europe.

Tymoshenko, with cooperation from her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, 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 denied the allegations as politically motivated.

She has repeatedly accused Judge Kireyev of implementing orders from the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych aimed at political persecution of his political opponents.

Meanwhile, new allegations were made on Thursday alleging that Yanukovych’s Regions Party has been financing a protest rally against Tymoshenko in front of the court.

Pavlo Tselovalnikov, an activist of the rally, at a press conference on Thursday disclosed the mechanics of the protest, which has been instructed from the offices of the Regions Party.

“Our group had about 30 people that had been directly coordinated from the office of the Regions Party on Lipska Street,” Tselovalnikov said. “The members of the group were not restricted in financing and were paid from 500 hryvnias to 1,000 hryvnias a day.”

The Regions Party denied the allegations. (nr/ez)