KIEV, March 3 – A trial to decide whether to strip jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s key defender of his lawmaker status will be held on Tuesday, senior opposition Batkivshchyna party officials said.

The trial of Serhiy Vlasenko, who may face arrest after losing his lawmaker immunity, was rescheduled after Batkivshchyna had disclosed the plans on Thursday.

“The plan was simple: to quietly hold the trial on Friday and to arrest me Friday night,” Vlasenko said at a press conference on Friday.

Oleksandr Rybak, the speaker of Parliament, on Thursday filed a lawsuit to the Supreme Administrative Court seeking to strip Vlasenko of his lawmaker status, Oleksandr Turchynov, a senior official at Batkivshchyna, said.

“We expect that after the trial the authorities will continue a brutal attack on our colleague and they plan his arrest,” Turchynov said.

Vlasenko is the key figure behind Tymoshenko’s legal defense and his removal from the team would greatly weaken the team.

Tymoshenko, who was jailed to seven years in October 2011 for abuse of office as the prime minister, is now facing a life in jail at another trial for alleged involvement of murder of a leading politician and a businessman in 1996.

Tymoshenko denied any involvement in the murder of Yevhen Shcherban and said the charges were politically motivated.

The developments show the authorities are increasing pressure on Tymoshenko and her allies days after European leaders gave President Viktor Yanukovych three months to stop political prosecutions as a condition for signing political association and free trade agreement in November.

Rybak, a long time ally of Yanukovych, while submitting the lawsuit against Vlasenko, cited legislation that does not allow a lawmaker to have another job.

Vlasenko was a certified lawyer and a member of a lawyer board when he was elected as lawmakers in October 2012.

Vlasenko said that he was involved in the Tymoshenko legal defense team as a civil defender not a lawyer. He also said that he signed an application on February 22 asking the board to cancel his lawyer status to make sure that this is not used as an excuse to strip him of the lawmaker status.

“I stopped being a lawyer in March 2008 and all this time I was a lawmaker who had a certificate allowing to practice law,” Vlasenko said in televised interview on Sunday.

If Vlasenko is stripped of his lawmaker status, he will automatically lose immunity from prosecution and may be arrested. He has an ongoing dispute over property with his ex-wife that may be used as a reason for his arrest.

“I am sure that the court will take decision that will be ordered from the Bankova street [the presidential administration]” Vlasenko said. “The Bankova will order to strip Vlasenko of the [lawmaker] mandate.”

“The decision will be made with such a cynicism that I may be arrested on March 6 taking into account that my birthday is on March 7,” Vlasenko said. (tl/ez)