On the first weekend of April the Western mass media reported that the German government is holding negotiations with the Ukrainian side about possible medical treatment of Yulia Tymoshenko in Berlin. This information was spread by German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Allegedly, negotiations are being conducted directly between the Administration of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych and the Office of the Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But it seems that this piece of news is someone’s spiteful joke. First of all, according to the Ukrainian laws detainees can not be sent to a foreign hospital for treatment. The Presidential Administration immediately denied this information.
But Tymoshenko now has a real chance to get to the Kharkiv hospital. Yesterday the opposition won a small but a very important victory – the GPU allowed providing medical treatment for Tymoshenko outside the penal colony. According to The Day’s information, not only BYuT members but also foreign ambassadors demanded to transfer Tymoshenko into a normal hospital ward. They say she requires a spinal tap as well as other complex procedures. It is clear that all of this can not be done in unsanitary conditions of a prison cell behind a screen.
“There is hope that the government has finally listened to the calls of the European Union and to the PAIR resolution,” suggested BYuT deputy Andrii Pavlovsky speaking with The Day. “After all, they had to fulfill at least one item of this resolution. The only question is when are they going to do it? Prior to the hearings of the UESU case or during the trial? On the one hand, they promise to provide medical treatment for the prisoners; on the other hand, they throw new cases at her. Thus, there is not much hope really. They’ve given promises a number of times but never kept their word.”
Besides the treatment in a hospital, another trial is waiting for Tymoshenko. This time the former prime minister will be tried for economic crimes.
Let us remind that Tymoshenko is accused of shifting the company’s debt of 405.5 million US dollars on the Ukraine’s budget, evaded paying taxes of 47 million hryvnias, hid 165 million dollars of the foreign currency earnings of the UESU, illegally received VAT, and committed forgery. Thus, even if the European Court decides that Tymoshenko was imprisoned illegally for the “gas case,” right away she can be locked away for another criminal case.
Tymoshenko’s lawyer Serhii Vlasenko has bad feelings about it all. “The authorities by the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office and the SBU want to add another 12 years of imprisonment to the 7 years she already got.” According to him, “the case against Tymoshenko is absurd,” because at the time of the alleged crimes Tymoshenko “did not have anything to do with the UESU.”
It is not hard to calculate that after adding 12 to 7 you will get 19 years. In fact, this would mean a lifetime sentence. The worst could be only execution, but fortunately, we don’t have it yet in our Code.
The exact date of the trial has not been set, but the choice of judge has already been made. He, just like Rodion Kirieiev, was chosen through a special electronic system. And by a strange coincidence the fate once again chose a young judge. The criminal case against the former prime minister will be tried by a 36-year old judge of the Kyiv District Court in Kharkiv Kostiantyn Sadovsky. However, members of Batkivshchyna Party do not believe in coincidences. They say that a young judge was chosen because he would listen to his bosses. Thus, he will only come out and read the verdict.
Pavlovsky, who, unlike most of his colleagues, spent the whole summer near the Pechersk Court, assured The Day that the MPs would not leave their leader alone in Kharkiv and will come regularly to the court hearings.
“We will set the duty. We will book hotels and live in Kharkiv 10 days or a week each. What else can we do? We have to support Tymoshenko so that she could see that her fellows in arms would never leave her in the lurch. She needs to see the familiar faces.”
However, it is still a big question whether Tymoshenko would be able to see the familiar faces. As you know, she never appeared in the Court of Appeal due to the health condition. But, perhaps, in Kharkiv they will be able to bring her to the court in an ambulance as they promised to do in Kyiv.
