KHARKIV - A woman convicted for premeditated murder may become former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's cell mate, Tymoshenko's lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko told reporters in Kharkiv where the ex-premier is serving her sentence.
"A third bed was installed in Yulia Volodymyrivna’s cell this weekend. Penitentiary staff told her that the new bed would probably be occupied by a very educated and tolerant woman, who had been convicted of premeditated murder," Vlasenko said.
Tymoshenko is still under video surveillance, although the surveillance data is not being archived.
"Of course she is under surveillance, but you know now the position of the penitentiary service: they just snoop, not record anything. At least, they say so in official replies we receive from them. So, if, Lord forbid, something happens, the penitentiary service will say that they don’t know how it happened," the lawyer said.
Tymoshenko was sentenced by Kyiv’s Pechersky Court to 7 years in prison on charges of abuse of office, while signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. The Ukrainian Court of Appeals upheld the verdict. The ex-premier is serving her sentence in the Kachanivska women’s penal colony in Kharkiv.
