KIEV, January 9 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko spent the night in the bathroom at her hospital following her declaration of “civil disobedience” on January 8, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported citing a penitentiary system official.
In an open letter to President Viktor Yanukovych published on Tuesday, Tymoshenko said she will not return to her hospital room while it is monitored by security cameras. She is also refusing to communicate with prosecutors and investigators and to attend court sessions.
“She first sat in the corridor, and then moved to the shower (bathing) room and spent the night there,” the official told journalists. The room has a couch and the doctors gave her a blanket, he said.
Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year sentence for abuse of office over a 2009 gas deal with Russia. Critics view the sentence as politically motivated. In May of 2012, Tymoshenko was moved to the hospital due to health issues. While serving her sentence, she has declared two hunger strikes.
Tymoshenko’s Batkyvshchyna Party came second in the country's October 2012 parliamentary elections, losing to the ruling Party of Regions.
International election observers criticized what they called the abuse of administrative resources, a lack of media freedom during the campaign season, and the opaque campaign finances of the Party of Regions.
