US Secretary of State expresses concern over treatment of Tymoshenko

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she is deeply concerned over the treatment of former Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and called on authorities in Kyiv to ensure she receives immediate medical attention.

Clinton said in a statement Tuesday the U.S. was requesting that its ambassador be given access to Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko, 51, is serving a seven-year jail sentence in a case the West has called politically motivated. Ukraine’s president is a fierce rival of Tymoshenko but government officials have denied any claims of bias in the case.

Clinton said photographs of Tymoshenko released by a human rights official call into question the conditions of her confinement. Clinton also expressed concern at the treatment of imprisoned officials in Tymoshenko’s former government and called for their release.

see also:
• Carl Bildt: Ukraine is heading towards authoritarianism
• Statement by European Commissioner Responsible for Sport
• 9 Heads of State thus far to boycott Presidential Summit in Yalta
• HRW demands full investigation into alleged beating of Yulia Tymoshenko
• Euro 2012 faces diplomatic crisis over Ukraine’s jailed opposition leader.
• Ukraine plays the Tymoshenko card and none too subtely
• New Tymoshenko trial postponed for month
• Yanukovych on track to isolation
• On the situation of Yulia Tymoshenko
• Thorbjørn Jagland : Human Rights Court is assessing medical treatment of Tymoshenko
• German president cancels trip to Ukraine
• PACE President: Situation with Tymoshenko must have consequences
• Ukraine asks German doctors to treat Tymoshenko