Members of Parliament of the Batkivschyna United Opposition Arsen Avakov, Andriy Pavlovsky and Oleksandr Bryhynets, were unable to get to the hospital ward of the ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv.
“The prison governor told us that we are allowed [to see the conditions of the confinement and the ward]. He phoned to Kyiv, and received a confirmation that the people’s deputies are allowed to see the premises, the surveillance cameras, the conditions of her stay and who guards her… Then something changed or the prison head got scared. At the last minute he asked us to wait, said he would make another phone call and disappeared. Then his subordinates told us that he went to the toilet and did not return. Three hours passed. We gave up and left,” Pavlovsky told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday evening.
He noted that on Tuesday, the MPs will try again to see the conditions of the ex-premier’s ward.
“Tomorrow, we will finally try to see the ward. After all, the prison head said that we could,” Pavlovsky said.
On January 8, Tymoshenko declared a campaign of civil disobedience and announced this in an open letter that was read aloud by her defense lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko.
The former prime minister said that she refused to recognize the prosecutors and investigators involved in her case and was not going to talk to them anymore. Tymoshenko also said she would not come to court voluntarily, and should they try to bring her to court by force, she would offer every resistance she could. The ex-premier also refused to go back to her hospital ward unless video surveillance and the guard are removed.
On Monday, several MPs from the Batkivschyna parliamentary faction met with the management of the Kachanivska Penal Colony and demanded to see the premises where the former prime minister is being held.
Later on, the State Penitentiary Service posted a statement saying that it “strictly sticks to the norms and regulations of Ukrainian and international legislation.”
In particular, the penitentiary service said that a court ruled that the installation of cameras in Tymoshenko’s ward was legal and that only women monitored the ex-premiers’ ward.
“The State Penitentiary Service stresses that even political pressure and threats by some people’s deputies will not force it to break laws,” reads the service’s statement.
