After a 12-hour court hearing held in a prison cell (tagged as a trial by a close-stool) nothing would seem to further amaze the Ukrainian public, not even the fact that Yulia Tymoshenko was brought to the Court of Appeal on a stretcher. This time her jailers showed humaneness and allowed her to stay in bed. The state prosecution was openly disappointed, claiming that Tymoshenko is a malingerer. “The impression is that she is pretending to be sick,” declared Prosecutor Lidia Frolova. Tymoshenko’s defense counsel, Serhii Vlasenko, objected that his client was in a critical condition and that there was no way she could attend a court hearing.
“We met with Tymoshenko on Monday, in her prison cell, precisely because she couldn’t walk. We would have never been allowed to visit her without permission from the pretrial detention center’s medical authority. This is ample proof that Tymoshenko cannot walk and so one can visit her only in her cell.”
Do you think she can be taken here?
“After the fourth session I cannot predict anything. All I can say is that the workers of the penal service and the prosecutors are so cynical that they can do anything. They can even drag a sick person. Frolova who can be hardly called a prosecutor said that Tymoshenko does not need any medical treatment. I wish she and her family did not need the medical treatment as Tymoshenko does not. This is stuff and nonsense. Tymoshenko cannot get up. She has not received any medical treatment over a month and she was examined with a 20-day delay. However, the prosecutors declare that everything is OK. We have already heard such declarations concerning Yurii Lutsenko when the prosecutors and the medics shouted that he feigned the hunger strike but then everybody saw that he had lost 30 kilos. Tymoshenko is in the similar situation.”
On Tuesday you said that the session cannot be held without Tymoshenko. Nevertheless, the sessions continue and some petitions are being filed. Is it a violation?
“No, it is not. The thing is that we asked the court to examine all the procedural petitions that can be examined without Yulia Tymoshenko; however, when her appeal is heard she certainly has to be present. Tymoshenko is one of the appellants and must be present when her appeal is heard. Some members of the Party of Regions describe Trubnikov’s process, the so-called ‘close-stool trial’ and cynically claim that the court had only two options: taking Tymoshenko to the court or coming to the pre-trial prison. However, there is another option: having a break. This option is provided by the law. The court could have a break until Tymoshenko recovers. It would be normal, legal, humane, and objective.”
For how long can the court have a break in this case?
“The court has the right to hear the case up to three month starting from the moment they receive it. They received it on November 9. It means that February 9 is the deadline for this case. We are sure that if Tymoshenko was free and had a possibility to receive an adequate medical treatment, 15-20 days would be enough to do everything her diagnosis requires. Probably, she would be operated on and she would have a possibility to be present at the session. There would not be any problem.”
