Yulia Tymoshenko's husband seeks asylum in the Czech Republic.

The husband of Ukraine's imprisoned opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, has asked for asylum in the Czech Republic, a Czech government source said on Friday.

Oleksander Tymoshenko requested asylum at the end of last year, the source told Reuters.

In October, his wife, a former prime minister, was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of office.

"He applied at the end of the last year and there has been no decision yet," the source said.

The Czech Republic has a policy of supporting opposition in countries that have patchy human rights records, a legacy of former President Vaclav Havel.

Last year, the Czech Republic granted asylum to Bohdan Danylyshyn, a former economy minister in Tymoshenko's cabinet wanted in Ukraine for suspected abuse of office.

Ukraine expelled two Czech diplomats and the Czechs retaliated later in the year.

Yulia Tymoshenko's case has seriously strained relations between Kiev and the west.

The EU, which had planned initial agreements on political association and free trade with Ukraine at a summit in December, put off the signing and cited Tymoshenko's case as an example of selective justice in the former Soviet republic.