Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko who is currently in a prison in the eastern city of Kharkov has agreed for a medical treatment form German doctor Lutz Harms, her lawyer said on Tuesday.
“Orange revolution” princess, Tymoshenko, 51, is serving a seven-year sentence for abuse of office following a trial that Western governments called politically motivated. Doctors from Germany's Charite clinic who examined her in late April diagnosed Tymoshenko with “an acute form of disk herniation."
Tymoshenko kept up a hunger strike on Tuesday as authorities prepared to transfer her from prison in Kharkov to a local hospital for treatment for back pains. “Only Dr. Harms could be her [Tymoshenko’s] healthcare provider,” Ukarine’s Unian news agency quoted lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko as saying.
Arriving on Monday night in Kharkov, Dr. Harms said the course of treatment might depend on what effect the hunger strike had had on her health.
Ukraine’s government puts pressure on home doctors and for that reason they could not give her the proper treatment, Valsenko said.
On Tuesday, Ukraine had to call off a Central European summit in Yalta after some European leaders refused to attend the event over alleged ill-treatment of jailed West-leaning ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko.
Last week, photos were circulated in the media showing Tymoshenko with bruises on her body, which she claims were inflicted by prison guards as they were forcibly transferring her to a hospital.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said European leaders refused to attend the summit before the scandal erupted around Tymoshenko’s alleged assault and battery in prison.
