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Doctors don’t permit Timoshenko to stand trial on June 25

Charite Clinic Berlin head Einhopl said Timoshenko should not attend sessions of the court hearing her new case
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

KIEV, June 24 (Itar-Tass) —— Ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister, Batkivshchyna party leader Yulia Timoshenko will not stand trial on June 25 for health reasons, the Ukrainian State Penitentiary Service reported on Sunday.

The service decided “not to bring Timoshenko to the courtroom after she had refused to appear in court by recommendation of German Prof. Karl Max Einhopl.”

Charite Clinic Berlin head Einhopl said Timoshenko should not attend sessions of the court hearing her new case. He said doctors recommended Timoshenko not to appear in court, because that would nullify the successful treatment of the past few weeks. He also said the trial should not be held now, bearing in mind the condition of Timoshenko’s health.

Doctors hope the condition of Timoshenko will stabilize within several weeks, Einhopl said.

The Kharkov Kiyevsky District Court delayed until June 25 in late May the hearing of merits of the new Timoshenko case because of her ailment.

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.

Timoshenko agreed to being treated at the Kharkov hospital of the Ukrainian railroads on condition her therapy would be supervised by a representative of Charite Berlin.

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.