You're reading: State Penitentiary Service lets fewer people visit Tymoshenko

Ukraine's State Penitentiary Service said on Tuesday, citing recommendations from doctors, that it had limited the number of visits to jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko during her current stay in the hospital in Kharkiv.

“German and Ukrainian physicians have recommended minimizing the
number of visits to convict Tymoshenko during her stay at the hospital
and focusing on her rehabilitation process,” the penitentiary service
said in a statement.

“Following the recommendations of the German physicians and in order
to ensure that the rehabilitative treatment of the convict produces a
maximum positive effect, the leadership of the penitentiary service and
physicians have jointly decided to limit visits from other persons to
convict Tymoshenko.”

The State Penitentiary Service said that on Tuesday the ex-prime
minister had two meetings with one of her defense lawyers, parliamentary
deputy Serhiy Vlasenko, one from noon to 1 p.m. and the other from 2 p.m.
to 3:30 p.m.

At 3:30 p.m. she convened with another defense lawyer, Andriy Kozhemiakin,
who is the parliamentary leader of the BYT-Batkivschyna party. The
meeting was still going on at the moment the penitentiary service issued
its statement, the service said.

“Let us mention that today, for the eighth time in a row, she refused
to attend a session of Kyivsky District Court of Kharkiv, something
that she notified the leadership of the penitentiary agency about,” the
service said.