Tymoshenko's state of health keeps declining, says defense lawyer
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's state of health keeps worsening, the ex-premier's defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko has said.
"Her health state has worsened. Her back pain has become sharper. She does not receive treatment… Today I saw that unlike in recent times, when she could sit without changing her position, now it is absolutely obvious that she's in pain," Vlasenko said at a press briefing on Monday.
He also said that the ex-premier was still staying in the hall and holds meetings with her defense lawyers in the meeting room. There is a couch in the meeting room and Tymoshenko can lie on it.
Vlasenko described the couch, with which the penitentiary service provided Tymoshenko when she declared a civil disobedience campaign and refused to return to her ward, as "a peace of iron on four legs."
"I want you to imagine the surrealistic situation. The toilet cannot be locked up at all, despite the fact that men and women can enter it, as it is a unisex toilet. At the same time, they lock up the meeting room when Yulia Volodymyrivna meets with her defense lawyers," Vlasenko said.
On January 8, 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.
