Tymoshenko's husband gets asylum in Czech Republic.

AFP - The Czech Republic on Friday granted asylum to the husband of Ukraine's jailed opposition leader and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Czech Interior Minister Jan Kubice said.

Oleksandr Tymoshenko, a 51-year-old businessman, fled to the Czech Republic because the authorities were using him to put pressure on his wife, the ex-premier's political party said..

"Mr Tymoshenko filed a request for political asylum with the interior ministry several months ago... and the request was granted today," Kubice told reporters.

Oleksandr Tymoshenko sought political asylum "in connection with the growing pressure being put on the opposition leader through her family," Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party said on its website.

Oleksandr Tymoshenko owns a stake in the Czech company International Industrial Projects, according to the Czech justice ministry.

Last year Prague granted asylum to Bogdan Danylyshyn, economy minister in Tymoshenko's government in 2007-2010, causing a row with Ukraine that led to the expulsion of two Czech diplomats for alleged spying in May 2011.

Yulia Tymoshenko, a leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution, was sentenced in October to seven years in prison after being convicted of abuse of power while in office.

She claims the verdict was ordered by Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych in a case that has severely damaged ties with the European Union. Tymoshenko's conviction was quickly followed by charges of financial crimes, allegedly committed while she was head of the state power company in the 1990s, which could keep her in prison even if the first case against her is overturned.

The second case also involves her husband, who spent a year in custody on charges of embezzlement in 2000-2001 but was freed because of a lack of evidence.

The Tymoshenko affair has sparked tensions between Kiev and Brussels, which suspects that the probes against the opposition leader are politically motivated.