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Timoshenko refuses treatment at Kharkov Ukrzheldorogi hospital

Ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister, Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Timoshenko, who is serving time at the Kharkov penitentiary

KIEV, April 6 (Itar-Tass) —— Ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister, Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Timoshenko, who is serving time at the Kharkov penitentiary, has refused to be treated at the Kharkov Ukrzheldorogi hospital, Timoshenko’s daughter Yevgenia said on Tuesday.

“You demonstrate luxury at hospitals and prisons for public relations purposes at the time when millions of people cannot afford therapy of their children and themselves. That is why I strongly reject the showcase conditions of the Ukrzheldorogi hospital. I demand that the hospital must admit sick children. Plasma taken from the chief physician must be returned. As for my treatment, it must comply with recommendations of independent doctors,” Timoshenko said in a letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. The letter was read out by her daughter.

She also said that Timoshenko was waiting for doctors from the German Charite Clinic. “My mother is still in pain,” Yevgenia Timoshenko said.

The Ukrainian Health Ministry said that they planned to treat Timoshenko at the spine and nervous system department of the Ukrzheldorogi clinic. “The material and technical conditions of this holiday meet every demand of the German specialists. They are also approved by all members of the Health Ministry’s special commission,” the ministry said.

Acting head of the Kharkov regional department of the Ukrainian State Penitentiary Service Yevgeny Barash said that three rooms had been assigned for Timoshenko on the 9th floor of the hospital: a hospital room with a bed, a wardrobe, a wall lamp, a wash basin, a toilet, an electric kettle, a water cooler and a plasma TV. There is also a dining room and a room for meeting with lawyers. The same floor has a plasmapheresis room and a remedial gymnastic room.

Hospital chief physician Mikhail Afanasyev said that Timoshenko could receive physiotherapy right in her room or in the plasmapheresis room if necessary. He also said that the possible admission of Timoshenko to the hospital would not change the hospital routine.

Timoshenko is serving a seven-year-term in Kharkov. The court sentenced her on October 11, 2011, for exceeding her authority in the signing of the gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She was also compelled to pay 1.51 billion hryvni (almost $200 million) to Neftegaz Ukrainy.

A new case against her was opened on October 13, 2011, for writing off the debt of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine private corporation to the Russian Defense Ministry worth $405,500,000 to the state budget of Ukraine, while being the corporation president, under conspiracy with other former Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko.