You're reading: Vlasenko: Tymoshenko has a skin rash

Kharkiv – Serhiy Vlasenko, a defense lawyer for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, has confirmed reports that the ex-premier has a skin rash.

“I have no powers to comment on any nuances, but I can confirm this information,” he told reporters on Monday outside the building of Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv, when asked to comment on reports in the Russian media that Tymoshenko has a skin rash.

On October 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office when signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She has been serving her prison term in the Kachanivska penal colony in Kharkiv since the end of December 2011.

The defense team has repeatedly stated that Tymoshenko had health problems even during her stay in Kyiv’s pre-trial detention center, and demanded that she be examined by independent doctors, because Tymoshenko does not trust Ukrainian doctors. On May 9, Tymoshenko was moved from the prison to Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv. The procedures for the ex-premier’s treatment in hospital have been selected by German doctors from the Charite Clinic.