Jailed Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Wants To Go Back To Prison

Lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko displays a letter Yulia Tymoshenko wrote to President Viktor Yanukovych

Ukraine's jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko wants to stop medical treatment in a hospital and has requested that she be transferred back to a labor camp near the eastern city of Kharkiv.

Tymoshenko's lawyer told journalists on October 19 that Tymoshenko would not undergo medical treatment under "savage and inhuman video observation."

A video, showing a woman resembling Tymoshenko doing physical exercises in a hospital room, circulated on the Internet on October 16.

Tymoshenko has also written an open leter to President Viktor Yanukovych, complaining that she is under round-the-clock video surveillance -- even while in the shower or toilet -- at the hospital.

Tymoshenko's lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, quoted from the letter to journalists. It alleges that hidden cameras were installed at the hospital on Yanukovych's personal orders.

On October 18, a court in Kharkiv postponed for the ninth time Tymoshenko's tax evasion trial after she did not show up in the courtroom saying she is not able to move because of back pain.

Tymoshenko is already serving a seven-year sentence in a separate case in which she was found guilty of abuse of power as prime minister.

She has been treated in a clinic in Kharkiv for her medical condition.


Based on reporting by Reuter, UNIAN, and Interfax