Activists from the Lviv regional branch of the Batkivschyna Party have gone on a hunger strike as a sign of solidarity with their leader, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, reads a statement posted on the party's Web site on Tuesday, April 24.
According to the statement, the voluntary and indefinite hunger strike will begin on Wednesday, April 25, at the center of Lviv, where tents will be put up.
"We are currently solving all organizational matters so as to go on a hunger strike tomorrow… In these situations, we have no right to stand aside and tell others what to do… She has to feel that she’s not alone," the leader of the party’s branch in Lviv region, Roman Ilyk, said.
He said that in this way Batkivschyna Party members would protest against the inhuman and cruel treatment of Tymoshenko.
As reported, on Tuesday, the ex-premier’s defense lawyer, MP Serhiy Vlasenko, read out her statement on the use of physical force during her transportation to hospital on April 20. He also said that Tymoshenko had announced a hunger strike.
The State Penitentiary Service denies the use of force against Tymoshenko and threatened to sue the ex-premier’s defense team in court.
