Kiev: Yulia Tymoshenko, the erstwhile Orange Revolution co-leader jailed for abuse of office, could be released from prison this autumn and allowed to travel to Germany for medical treatment under a deal being thrashed out between the authorities in Kiev and European intermediaries.
The EU has made the solution of the dispute a prerequisite of closer ties with the former Soviet republic.
Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year term for abuse of power concerning past energy deals with Russia. She has been in hospital since May 2012, suffering from a spinal hernia. Doctors from the Berlin-based Charite clinic have been involved in her treatment.
Renat Kuzmin, Ukraine’s first deputy prosecutor general, said Tymoshenko could be sent to Germany for further treatment. “Such a possibility is not prohibited by law,” Kuzmin said at his Kiev office. “If certain political and legal decisions are taken, it’s possible.”
Kuzmin refused to specify the terms under which she could stay in Germany.
European officials have been quietly pushing for a solution, with the affair severely testing relations between Brussels and Kiev.
“There are some plans, certain proposals have been made. Now we are waiting for a response, and we’ll see,” Alexander Kwasniewski, the European parliament’s envoy and a former Polish president, told Polish Radio.
Tymoshenko shot to prominence during the Orange Revolution, the Ukrainian people’s uprising against fraudulent elections that ultimately prevented Viktor Yanukovych from assuming the presidency in 2004. Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko in the 2010 election by three percentage points to become president. Criminal cases against her were opened later that year.
Tymoshenko was jailed in 2011 for abuse of power. The case was widely seen as an attempt by Yanukovych to keep his rival out of the 2015 presidential elections.
Insiders claim that Tymoshenko has been reluctant to leave Ukraine for treatment because she does not want to desert her power base. They now say she may be about to change her mind.
Tymoshenko’s daughter, Eugenia, said she liked the idea of sending her mother for treatment abroad, although she did not know her mother’s exact thoughts.
“This decision depends not on us. It depends only on one person — Yanukovych,” she said. “But if this decision is made, it doesn’t make sense for her to refuse this, because she definitely needs this treatment. This is what I think as a daughter.” GUARDIAN NEWS
