You're reading: Tymoshenko demands Lutsenko be released

Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko should be released from custody for health reasons, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko told journalists on Wednesday.

"The Prosecutor Office’s reports about Yura [Lutsenko], no matter how much bravado they try to exude, are not true," she said.

"I hope that common sense will eventually prevail, and Yura will be freed from custody and will be able to go home to restore his health," Tymoshenko said.

The Ukrainian Parliament’s Human Rights Commissioner Nina Karpacheva, who visited Lutsenko in the hospital, said that the former minister’s health had seriously deteriorated.

"He told me that he started to feel much worse today. He says that he feels very weak and cannot even read," Karpacheva said.

Lutsenko, who has lost much weight, had asked the doctors treating him not to disclose his diagnosis to anyone, except for his wife, Karpacheva said.