Lutsenko transferred to clinic from prison, says party's press secretary

Former Interior Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko has been taken to Chernihiv Regional Clinical Hospital from the Mena Penal Colony, according to the press secretary of the People's Self-Defense Party, Larysa Sarhan.

"Treatment is not considered for the time being, he will be just examined," she wrote on her page in Facebook on Tuesday.

On Monday, December 3, the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine reported that Lutsenko was again offered a full medical examination in hospital, and he agreed to it.

Kyiv's Pechersky District Court found Lutsenko guilty of a number of counts of abuse of office and sentenced him to four years in prison on February 27, 2012. Lutsenko was also charged with interfering in an investigative case concerning Valentyn Davydenko, the driver of former SBU First Deputy Chief Volodymyr Satsiuk, as part of an investigation into the poisoning of then presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko on August 17, 2012 by Pechersky Court. The court sentenced Lutsenko to two years in prison.

On August 31, 2012, the ex-minister was transferred to the Mena Penal Colony in Chernihiv region.

The medical commission examined Lutsenko on November 8 and came to a conclusion that there was no reason for the ex-minister's hospitalization. Meanwhile, his wife and defender, Iryna Lutsenko, stated that during the examination the doctors discovered that the ex-minister has heart disease.

On November 15, Lutsenko refused from an examination with the help of medical equipment at Chernihiv Regional Clinical Hospital.

On November 29, Lutsenko complained that for 20 days he had not been undergoing any of the medical procedures prescribed by his medical commission. The press service of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine denied the information and on November 30 it was reported that Lutsenko agreed to undergo a repeat medical examination at a laboratory.