You're reading: Vlasenko: Unknown medications seized from medical staff, not Tymoshenko

Kharkiv – The State Prison Service had no right to conduct a search of the hospital ward of former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, who is undergoing treatment in Central Clinical Hospital No. 5, in Kharkiv, the defense lawyer of former prime minister Serhiy Vlasenko has said.

He also said that the medicines found during the search, which took
place in the ex-minister’s ward on Thursday, were taken not from
Tymoshenko, but from medical staff.

“In accordance with the current legislation, the penitentiary
system’s administration has the right to conduct searches only in the
penal colony, thus there can be no searches in health care facilities
under existing law,” Vlasenko told reporters on Monday near the hospital
where Tymoshenko is undergoing treatment.

He denied claims by the prison service that unknown medicines were seized from Tymoshenko as a result of a search of her ward.

“The drugs were taken from doctors, medical staff. This means that
Yulia Tymoshenko has nothing to do with these drugs… This is not the
first time that the prison service has said some nonsense about
Tymoshenko’s medications,” Vlasenko said.

On Sept. 13, the press service of the State Penitentiary Service
said that a secret compartment in a copy of the Criminal Code of Ukraine
was found in Tymoshenko’s ward in Central Clinical Hospital in Kharkiv.
The cache contained prohibited electronic devices and medicines of
unknown origin.

Tymoshenko’s lawyer, Oleksandr Plakhotniuk made public the
ex-premier’s statement that the radiation dosimeters, which were taken
from her on Sept.13, had several times registered radiation levels
that exceeded permissible levels over the time of her hospital
treatment, and had asked that she be given new dosimeters.