KHARKIV - Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is imprisoned in the Kachanivska penal colony in Kharkiv, was beaten by the first deputy head of the colony, Andriy Kovalenko, Tymoshenko’s defense lawyer and head of the BYT-Batkivschyna faction in parliament, Andriy Kozhemiakin, has said.
"She was beaten. The man who beat her and left the traces of beating is known. This is the first deputy chief of the Kachanivska colony, Mr. Andriy Mykolayovych Kovalenko, who is now hiding from deputies and journalists, although he has always accompanied us to Yulia Tymoshenko’s cell. There was physical violence," he told reporters after visiting the Kachanivska colony and meeting with the former prime minister.
Tymoshenko’s daughter, Yevheniya, who also visited the colony, said that her mother was in serious condition.
"My mother is in dire physical condition. She’s lying in the bed after what happened to her," she said.
Kozhemiakin said that on Wednesday morning, representatives of the colony, headed by Ivan Pervushkin, visited Tymoshenko and warned her that if she continues her hunger strike, they will be forced to isolate her and forcibly feed her through a tube.
"They are preparing another kind of violence," he said.
