Vlasenko says Tymoshenko barred from meeting him
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko has stated that he was not allowed to see his client.
"They are artificially preventing me from meeting Yulia Tymoshenko, and they don't admit Yulia Tymoshenko to a meeting with her defense lawyers. As far as I understand, they are repeating yesterdays' tricks with Yevhenia [Tymoshenko's daughter and defense layer]," Vlasenko told an Interfax-Ukraine reporter.
He said that he had been waiting for Tymoshenko at a new meeting room at the hospital for 40 minutes.
"The room is new, it was equipped recently. It's impossible to work there. I could hear patients of the intensive care unit speaking. I had a feeling that the patients of the intensive care unit were near me and speaking to me," the defense lawyer said.
He added that no one gave him a clear answer why he was not allowed to meet with Tymoshenko at the meeting room or the premises where she is kept.
"The penitentiary service is doing everything to prevent me from meeting with Tymoshenko. I would like to draw your attention that later on the Prosecutor General's Office will say that Tymoshenko has not chosen a defense lawyer, that Tymoshenko is delaying the case, and that Tymoshenko did not meet with her defense lawyers on purpose. I am stressing they are not allowing me to see her," Vlasenko said.
Earlier, the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine stated that Tymoshenko had refused to meet with Vlasenko at the meeting room.
