All news

Timoshenko’s condition worsening despite treatment

The commission arrived at the request of the colony administration following Timoshenko’s health complaints

KIEV, January 30 (Itar-Tass) —— Former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko’s condition is worsening despite medical treatment, her lawyer Sergei Vlasenko said.

“Her condition is not improving despite medical treatment,” he said on Monday, January 30.

Vlasenko stressed that Timoshenko continues to reject medical examination offered by the Health Ministry. At the same time, Timoshenko has asked the administration of the Kachanivska penal colony, where she is serving her term, to allow Ukrainian medics led by neurosurgeon Nikolai Polishchuk to examine her.

German medics submitted documents to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry last week in a bid to get access to Timoshenko. “Necessary formal procedures are underway now,” the lawyer said.

Ukrainian mass media report that Timoshenko’s husband, Alexander Timoshenko, who has been given political asylum in the Czech Republic, has asked prominent Czech physician, former Health Minister Zuzana Roitova to lead a team of independent medics to examine his wife.

A commission of Ukrainian Health Ministry specialists consisting of a traumatologist, neurosurgeon, neurologist, and a physician visited Timoshenko in the cell last week and suggested that she undergo a medical examination and take tests, but she refused.

The commission arrived at the request of the colony administration following Timoshenko’s health complaints. It advised the colony’s medics to continue the course of treatment earlier prescribed to Timoshenko.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said it would be ready to arrange for the work of an international medical group to examine Timoshenko.

“In reply to an appeal from the ambassadors of the EU countries, the United States and international medical organisations, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine is ready, within its jurisdiction, to support the work of a joint medical group for an independent examination of Timoshenko,” the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office said earlier.

The Prosecutor General’s Office is ready to “provide for the participation of any medical specialist for both her examination and treatment if need be,” the press service said.

On October 11, 2011, Timoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for having acted in excess of her powers which had resulted in damage to the national interests of the country.

Timoshenko has also been barred from holding public positions for three years and has to pay a penalty of 189 million U.S. dollars in damages to Naftogaz Ukrainy.

In late December 2011, Timoshenko was transferred from the investigation prison to a correctional facility in the eastern Kharkov region.