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Yanukovich promises to give medical aid to Timoshenko

Human rights commissioner in the Verkhovna Rada Nina Karpacheva, who visited the Kiev detention centre, stated Monday that Yulia Timoshenko is in extremely heavy condition

KIEV, November 22 (Itar-Tass) — The former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Timoshenko, who is being kept at the Kiev detention centre, will be provided with necessary medical aid in the next few days, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich told a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite here on Tuesday.

“I looked into this issue in the morning and had a conversation with the health minister, the general prosecutor and the interior minister. I said to them that they should pay a close attention to this issue. They should give all necessary medical aid to her,” Yanukovich said.

At the detention centre the necessary aid cannot be given to the former prime minister. “Therefore, this treatment or these medical services will be given at Kiev medical institutions, this will be done today or tomorrow, in the next few days,” the president pointed out.

Human rights commissioner in the Verkhovna Rada Nina Karpacheva, who visited the Kiev detention centre, stated Monday that Yulia Timoshenko is in extremely heavy condition. “Timoshenko is in extremely heavy condition, she failed to get up from the bed, when she was speaking with me. She demands a medical examination and treatment outside the detention centre,” Karpacheva said.

Last Saturday the press service of the Ukrainian State Penitentiary Service stated that Timoshenko refused from a medical examination. “On November 19, the committee made up of specialists from the Ukrainian Health Ministry, the State Penitentiary Service, her personal doctor and a nurse came to the detention centre for an additional medical examination of Timoshenko,” the press service reported. However, Timoshenko “again refused from a medical examination in the current makeup of the committee with the relevant act made,” the press service said.

The State Penitentiary Service noted that the authorities of the detention centre are seeking to give the qualified medical aid to Timoshenko since August 18, including her personal doctor and a nurse. “But despite this fact she refused systematically from offered examinations, including laboratory tests and the examination with medical tools that violates the procedure of medical aid to people being kept in custody. Over the foresaid refusals Timoshenko was warned repeatedly about her personal responsibility for her state of health,” the press service said.

The Pechorsky District Court of Kiev sentenced the former prime minister to seven years in prison with the ban to occupy some public posts within another three years for the abuse of power in the signing of gas contracts with Russia. The Kiev Court of Appeal is expected to try the appeal to the verdict against Timoshenko in the gas criminal case on December 13.