KIEV, Oct. 10 – Law enforcement authorities will be stepping up activity in Kiev on Tuesday ahead of an expected verdict in the trial of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the authorities and opposition figures said Monday.

Police late Monday cordoned off the area around the Pecherskiy district court in Kiev by installing restrictive barriers that are supposed to separate antagonistic crowds ahead of the trial.

An SBU security service source said Monday there might be “terrorist” attacks against the people in the area, Interfax-Ukraine reported, citing an unidentified person at the agency.

But the reports of the growing law enforcement activity around the court did not keep pro-Tymoshenko supporters from seeking mobilization of their crowd for Tuesday morning.

“We begin the rally of patriots in front of the Pecherskiy court building at 9 o’clock in the morning,” Oleksandr Turchynov, a former deputy prime minister and Tymoshenko’s closest ally, said at a press conference. “We hope thousands will show up.”

Turchynov cited a source at law enforcement that riot police unit from around Ukraine had been ordered to the area in downtown Kiev on Tuesday morning.

The European Union, a major trading partner for Ukraine, sees the trial of the charismatic opposition leader on a charge of abuse of office as political and says it is threatening landmark economic agreements.

"We are not optimistic about this trial. Our impression remains (that it amounts to) selective application of justice," the bloc's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters on Monday, Reuters reported.

EU foreign ministers had expressed great concern about the upcoming verdict, she said after an EU meeting in Luxembourg.

The bloc has warned President Viktor Yanukovych, Tymoshenko's arch-rival, that bilateral agreements on association and a free trade zone will not be approved by EU members if she is jailed.

Tymoshenko's supporters, who have camped out near the courtroom during the summer, called for a mass rally on Tuesday.

The former premier, 50, has been held in police detention for contempt of court since August 5.

When the judge late last month called an adjournment until Tuesday it was widely seen as a strategic pause to give Yanukovych and his advisers time to consider their options in the face of the Western criticism.

He maintains that her prosecution is a matter for the courts.

Her supporters say that Yanukovych, who narrowly beat her for the presidency in a bitter run-off vote in February 2010, wants to neutralise her as a political force before next years parliamentary election.

The prosecution has asked for her to be jailed for seven years.

Judge Rodion Kireyev could now deliver a verdict and sentence. But commentators say he may call for a further delay, especially if political negotiations linked to the trial are still going on behind the scenes. (tl/ez)