Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, jailed in her home country, refused a medical checkup to be held jointly by local prison doctors and specialists from Canada and Germany.
Tymoshenko, who was given seven years in prison last year for abuse of authority, has been complaining of back problems for months. Her lawyers insist she is currently incapable of walking.
Tymoshenko was to be examined by foreign medics under the supervision of Ukrainian prison doctors, but she refused a check, demanding that the Ukrainian specialists be banned from participating, a spokesman for the country’s prison service said on Tuesday.
He added that Ukrainian legislation prohibits an unsupervised check. No resolution for the impasse was proposed on Tuesday.
Tymoshenko, a driving force behind Ukraine’s “Orange revolution” of 2004, insists her case was fabricated by her political nemesis, President Viktor Yanukovych, who she says wants to prevent her from running in the presidential race of 2015. Yanukovych denies the allegations.
