Kharkiv - Ukrainian parliamentarians Oleksanrda Kuzhel, Tetiana Sliuz, and Liudmyla Denisova, members of the Batkivschyna opposition party, who refused to leave former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko after their visit with her at a Kharkiv hospital, were forcibly removed from the hospital on Friday morning, a source in Batkivschyna said.
The Ukrainian State Penitentiary Service reported that the women had left the hospital under a court ruling.
“The women parliamentarians left the building to fulfill the decision made by the Kharkiv Dzerzhinsky District Court. They were familiarized with that decision,” Ihor Andrushko, an aide to the head of the State Penitentiary Service, told Interfax on Friday morning.
In the meantime, a source in the parliament said the women “were forcibly removed from the ward and locked up in a room by 15 Berkut special task force officers.”
According to earlier reports, Tymoshenko’s lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko issued an address by Tymoshenko to President Viktor Yanukovych stating she was beginning a personal civil resistance action on January 8.
Tymoshenko is refusing to talk to investigators and prosecutors, refused to voluntarily go to the court building, and promised to physically resist if attempts are made to take her to the court building by force. Tymoshenko has refused to return to her ward due to video surveillance in the ward and the presence of guards there.
On January 16, Oleksanrda Kuzhel, Tetiana Sliuz, and Liudmyla Denisova, (members of the opposition party Batkivschyna) came to Central Clinical Hospital №5 to visit Tymoshenko. They said the main purpose of their visit was to support Tymoshenko, but later said they were joining her civil resistance action and would remain with her until her demands were fulfilled.
Penitentiary service officials said they intend to “work with the parliamentarians.” Ihor Kolpaschykov, the head of the Kachanivska colony, later said documents are being prepared for a lawsuit against the parliamentarians.
