You're reading: Lutsenko on situation with Tymoshenko: Penitentiary service tells bald-faced lies

By refusing ex-Premier Yulia Tymoshenko a short meeting with her political allies, the authorities are trying to break her, ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has said. 

“Today any prisoner has a small amount of rights, as does Tymoshenko. But these basic rights have been determined: a right to a call – Tymoshenko doesn’t have it, a right to a meeting once a month with any third party, a long-term meeting with the relatives – there are no such rights. Fortunately, her daughter was admitted to her after a struggle. In fact, we see how roughly Tymoshenko’s rights are violated in order to break her. I passed through all this, I know that Yulia won’t give up, and will stay a free person and our leader even in this situation,” Lutsenko told journalists near the Central Clinical Hospital No. 5, where Tymoshenko is undergoing treatment.

He said the statements of the State Penitentiary Service regarding Tymoshenko should not be believed.

“I ask you, don’t believe a words from the penitentiary service – it tells bald-faced lies, bluntly executing a political order,” Lutsenko stressed.

The ex-minister said when he went on hunger strike, employees of the colony said that he was “eating fish pies” and denied their were any problems with his health.

“They said that I’m not on a hunger strike…As a result, I lost 23 kilograms and was taken to intensive care. It was said that I felt better day by day, but a second operation was scheduled for me on Tuesday,” he said.

Commenting on the transport collapse in Kharkiv on Friday, the ex-interior minister said: “Unfortunately, nothing changed regarding this in Kharkiv. As there was no freedom at Svoboda Square in 2007, so till now there is no freedom in all Kharkiv. But it’s a sign of fear, a sign that the authorities are afraid of people and it means that the opposition leaders, who came to people are going the right way, and I support them regarding this.”