Family ‘extremely concerned’ as former Ukraine PM’s hunger strike continues
Source: NewsCore
KYIV, Ukraine — The family of jailed former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Tuesday they are very worried about her health after being forbidden to see her on what is now the 12th day of her hunger strike, Sky News reported.
Tymoshenko’s daughter Yevgenia said her family had been barred from seeing her on account of the May Day holiday.
“Mum has been fasting for 12 days. We are very worried about her health,” Yevgenia said in a statement published on her mother’s website. “It is the holidays now, we are not being allowed to see her and we have no idea what might happen in the meantime. We are extremely concerned.”
The former prime minister was jailed after what her supporters say was a politically-motivated show trial and part of a campaign of repression by her long-term foe President Viktor Yanukovich.
She has already claimed to have been mistreated in prison, saying guards on one occasion dragged her off her bed and punched her in the stomach. Prosecutors deny the claims.
Her plight is now at the center of a widespread political debate that threatens to cast a long shadow over this summer’s European Football Championship. Some European politicians are considering a boycott.
Yevgenia Tymoshenko said the upcoming soccer tournament will be a big test for Yanukovich.
“In terms of the boycott, I think it is maybe the last diplomatic warning to the regime of Yanukovich to stop political repressions, to stop political crisis to Ukraine, to release political prisoners, to stop torturing them in prison and to let them participate in the parliamentary elections,” she said.
With her trademark braid, populist firebrand Tymoshenko became one of the faces of the 2004 orange revolution that ousted Yanukovich from power. In a remarkable turnaround, he returned to office in 2010.
Tymoshenko was jailed last autumn for seven years on charges of abuse of office. She faces a new trial for alleged tax evasion. She has refused to attend the opening of the trial, saying she is too ill.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday she was “deeply concerned” at the treatment of Tymoshenko.
“We urge the Ukrainian authorities to ensure that Mrs. Tymoshenko receives immediate medical assistance in an appropriate facility and request that the US Ambassador be given access to her,” Clinton said in a statement.
“We continue to call for her release, the release of other members of her former government and the restoration of their full civil and political rights.”
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