Tymoshenko refuses to appear in court without consulting German doctors, says prison service

The administration of the prison in Kharkiv where Tymoshenko is serving her term, informed her that she must turn up at a district court in Kharkiv to attend the hearings on July 23, it said.

"Tymoshenko refused to attend the court hearings, citing the necessity to consult German doctors," the statement says.

Her refusal was documented in written form.

The Penitentiary Service also said that Tymoshenko has refused six times to attend the UESU hearings and the hearings of her appeal against the sentence passed in the "gas case."

The next UESU hearings have been scheduled for July 23 and the hearings of the appeal for August 16. The European Court of Human Rights plans to hear Tymoshenko's complaint against her allegedly unlawful arrest on August 28.

A court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in jail on October 11, 2011, on counts of exceeding her authority while negotiating gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She has been serving her term at a prison in Kharkiv since December 2011.

Court hearings are being held in Kharkiv in one more criminal case started against her, connected with Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine.

Her lawyers had repeatedly complained that the ex-premier is having serious health problems that she developed while still in pretrial detention in Kyiv. Tymoshenko was demanding to be examined by independent doctors as she did not trust the state health service.

On May 9, Tymoshenko was moved to the Ukrainian Railroads hospital, where she is being treated and observed by German doctors of the Charite clinic.