UKRAINE: Lawyer for Yulia Tymoshenko says she is on hunger strike after prison guards beat her while moving her to hospital last week

Record ID: 858675

  • Title: UKRAINE: Lawyer for Yulia Tymoshenko says she is on hunger strike after prison guards beat her while moving her to hospital last week
  • Date: 25th April 2012
  • Summary: YULIA TYMOSEHNKO'S PICTURE
  • Embargoed: 10th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine, Ukraine
  • City:
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Conflict,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADRSF1R628D152VF06FG3IGUK8
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  • Story Text: Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, in prison on abuse-of-office charges, has gone on a hunger strike after prison guards beat her up while forcibly moving the opposition leader to a hospital last week, her lawyer said on Tuesday (April 24).
    Tymoshenko, 51, is the main opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich and her conviction last year drew condemnation from the West, which saw it as an example of selective justice. The state prison service moved Tymoshenko, who has complained about back pain, to a state-run hospital in the city of Kharkiv last Friday (April 20), only to return her to a prison in the same city on Sunday after she refused to be examined.
    On Tuesday, Tymoshenko's lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, read out a statement from Tymoshenko in which she alleged that prison guards had beaten her in order to force her to leave her prison cell last Friday.
    "Approximately after 21:00 my prison cell mate was taken out of the cell and some time after that three men of heavy build came to my cell. They came to my bed, put a sheet on me start pulling me from the bed using brutal force. From pain and despair I started defending myself as I could and than I received a strong punch in my belly. My arms and legs were twisted, I was lifted and dragged in this sheet outside. I thought that the last minute of my life had U+0441ome," said Vlasenko, reading the statement.
    A state prosecutor denied allegations of beating but said Tymoshenko's move last week had indeed been forced.
    "I saw myself this haematoma on the belly and bruises all over her hands. It is clear now why authorities didn't let her lawyers or anybody else see Tymoshenko for two days in the hospital," Vlasenko said.
    The statement by Tymoshenko said the ex-prime minister had started her hunger strike on Friday.
    "I stopped eating from the 20th of April, meaning I started a hunger strike with the only reason behind it being - to draw the attention of the democratic world to what is going on in the centre of Europe, in a country named Ukraine," Vlasenko told reporters outside the jail in Kharkiv, reading Tymoshenko's statement.
    Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison last October on charges of abusing her power as prime minister in brokering a 2009 gas deal with Russia. Yanukovich's government says the deal ran against national interests and has saddled Ukraine with an exorbitant price for vital energy supplies.
    Tymoshenko is now standing a new trial, charged with tax evasion and attempted embezzlement, and faces up to 12 years in prison if found guilty. She has denied any wrongdoing in both cases, dismissing them as part of a campaign of repression by Yanukovich's government.
    The European Union has warned Ukraine that its members will not ratify key bilateral agreements on political association and free trade while Tymoshenko remains in prison.
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