The Batkivschyna Party has created a working group to protect the party's leader, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, from torture and inhuman treatment, reads a statement posted on the party’s Web site.
The working group, led by the deputy head of the BYT-Batkivschyna faction in parliament, MP Yuriy Odarchenko, has filed a complaint with the Committee against Torture (Geneva, Switzerland).
The party asked the committee to immediately accept the complaint and issue a statement on the violation by Ukraine of its international commitments regarding the use of torture.
"Tymoshenko has become a victim of torture and inhuman treatment by the government as a whole, represented by the president, the prosecutor general, as well as ministers and judges subordinate to the president. There is no institution in Ukraine at which it’s possible to complain about the circumstances set out in this document, as we believe that the current political regime in Ukraine is guilty of torture and inhuman treatment, and we ask the committee to make a respective assessment," reads the complaint.
The party said that since the first court session, psychological torture has been used with respect to Tymoshenko in order to force her to confess. The complaint points to the facts of "inhuman treatment towards the ex-prime minister: the grueling daily regime during the trial, the ban on her being examined by her personal doctor, the depriving of her right to file any petitions and applications, and the refusal to grant inpatient treatment outside the prison and penal institutions, etc. "
"Despite the findings of an international medical commission and numerous appeals by the international community, assistance is not being provided to her. She’s now on the verge of disability – her diseases could cause irreversible consequences. We believe that deliberately bringing a person to a state of disease and then denying medical assistance to this person, which was committed in connection with the revenge by the government against the opposition leader, should be qualified as torture or inhuman treatment, as defined in the Convention [against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment]," reads the complaint.
On Oct. 11, 2011, the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office over the signing of gas contracts with Russia in 2009. Kyiv’s Court of Appeals upheld the verdict. The consideration of a cassation appeal lodged by Tymoshenko’s defense team against the verdict in the gas case is scheduled for May 15.
