Doctors from Canada and Germany will examine Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s jailed ex-prime minister, together with Ukrainian doctors, a spokesman from the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said on Monday.
Tymoshenko was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 for abuse of power in signing a gas deal with Russia in 2009. The deal obliged Ukraine to buy larger amounts of gas than it now needs and at higher prices than it says are fair. Ukraine has since consistently sought revision of the deal.
Lawyers for the ex-premier had claimed that Tymoshenko's health was deteriorating and that she was not receiving adequate treatment. At the same time, the press service of the National Prison Service of Ukraine (GPSU) reported that Tymoshenko had refused an offer of treatment.
Tymoshenko's lawyers insisted on an independent survey from foreign and Ukrainian doctors who do not work in the Ministry of Health. “Recently specialists from the Federal Republic of Germany and Canada arrived in Ukraine, together with the Ukrainian doctors they will perform a checkup of Tymoshenko at the Kachanovsky colony in the Kharkov region,” the spokesman said in a statement.
