Tymoshenko keeps spending nights in hall, says lawyer

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has declared a campaign of civil disobedience, still refuses to return to her ward and keeps spending nights in the hall of the clinic where she is undergoing a course of treatment, the ex-premier's defense lawyer Oleksandr Plakhotniuk has said.

"[She is] in the hall, still refusing to enter her ward. It [returning to the ward] is impossible," Plakhotniuk told Interfax-Ukraine, following a meeting with the ex-premier at Kharkiv-based Central Clinical Hospital No. 5.

According to the lawyer, Tymoshenko sits on her walking frame and refuses to use a couch that was brought to the bathroom.

"The penitentiary service brought a so-called iron couch to the water closet. It is standing near the toilet facilities. If they think that it is normal to sleep in such conditions and on such a couch then they should try to do so. So, I cannot say that she enjoyed a good sleep and good rest. She has not been sleeping for two days and then she had a nap somehow in combat conditions," Plakhotniuk said.

Head of the Kachanivska Penal Colony Ihor Kolpaschykov confirmed that Tymoshenko has not returned to her ward, but did not answer where she spent nights.

"There are many premises there," Kolpaschykov told Interfax-Ukraine.

On January 8, Yulia Tymoshenko declared a campaign of civil disobedience and announced this in an open letter that was read aloud by her defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko.

The former prime minister said that she refused to recognize the prosecutors and investigators involved in her case and was not going to talk to them anymore.

Tymoshenko also said she would not come to court voluntarily, and should they try to bring her to court by force, she would offer every resistance she could.

The ex-premier also refused to go back to her hospital ward unless video surveillance and the guard are removed.