You're reading: Official: Ukrainian law does not allow for Tymoshenko to be sent for treatment abroad

Kharkiv - Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko cannot be sent to Germany for medical treatment under existing law, Andriy Lapynsky, a deputy chief of the State Penitentiary Service department for the Kharkiv region, told journalists on Thursday. 

“Not a single Ukrainian legislative act and not a single convention joined by Ukraine envisions that a citizen sentenced to imprisonment by a court can be temporarily transferred outside the country for any examination or treatment. Taking into account that Tymoshenko is a citizen of Ukraine and that she has been convicted by a civilian court, her treatment and examination abroad is simply impossible in line with the existing law now,” Lapynsky said in commenting on reports that doctors from the Berlin-based Charite clinic were prepared to treat her there or at home if she is placed under house arrest.

Lapynsky noted that Tymoshenko cannot be placed under house arrest in line with the Ukrainian Criminal Code.

“The Criminal Code strictly determines 12 forms of criminal punishment. It does not envision house arrest. House arrest is provided for by the new version of the Criminal Procedure Code, which will take effect on November 19 this year, but house arrest is applied to people under investigation. Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko] has already been convicted, and her punishment is imprisonment,” Lapynsky said.

Asked whether Tymoshenko could be transferred back to the penitentiary from the hospital where she is undergoing treatment now, Lapynsky said this issue is not under consideration now.