Bohatyryova: Tymoshenko completes medical treatment

Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose jailing for abuse of power soured Ukraine's relations with the European Union, has completed her medical treatment at a local hospital, Healthcare Minister Raisa Bohatyryova was quoted as saying on Friday, July 27.

Treatment for a back complaint has kept Tymoshenko, President Viktor Yanukovich's main rival, out of jail for almost three months, and Bohatyryova's statement did not say whether the authorities would now return her to prison.

"An international commission which includes German and Ukrainian doctors ... states that the rehabilitation process has been completed successfully," Interfax news agency quoted Bohatyryova as saying.

The West has condemned Tymoshenko's jailing last October as an example of selective justice and the EU stopped free trade deals and political association with Kyiv and urged her release.

But Yanukovich has refused to intervene and state prosecutors have instead piled more charges on Tymoshenko. Hearings in a fresh tax evasion case against her are due to resume on July 31.

Tymoshenko, 51, who was a leader of the 2004 "Orange Revolution" protests which derailed Yanukovich's first bid for the presidency, has dismissed all charges against her as part of political vendetta by Yanukovich.

She served twice as prime minister and narrowly lost the 2010 presidential election to Yanukovich.

A coalition which includes her party Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) will be the main competitor of Yanukovich's Party of the Regions in the October parliamentary election.

On Friday, the Healthcare Ministry declined immediate comment and the prison service could not be reached for comment.