Ukraine: Yulia Tymoshenko's health raises concerns that she has been maltreated.

Zuzana Roithová EPP Group MEP, former Minister of Health of the Czech Republic and former long serving director of the Prague Faculty Hospital gave the following statement following her visit of the 19th to the 21st of February to Kyiv, Ukraine:

"At the request of the family of Yulia Tymoshenko to help highlight the health problems of the imprisoned Ukrainian politician, I paid a visit to Kyiv to consult with a wider circle of people about the health situation of the former Ukrainian Prime Minister. I underline that my mission was humanitarian, not political.

I was furnished with part of the medical records of Yulia Tymoshenko from November 2011, which clearly shows that even then the medical findings concerning the lumbar spine area required proper treatment with anesthetics, followed by appropriate rest and a further decision on possible surgical solution following more examinations. That would have been the standard procedure. Instead, however, she was deprived of her supportive crutches, she spent endless hours interrogated and was even temporarily deprived of the painkillers.

Following this mission, I will be taking much more seriously the concerns of Tymoshenko's family, who fear that Yulia Tymoshenko could be exposed to toxic substances so she would succumb to the pressure upon her. It is therefore necessary that the international community insists that the Ukraine allow for independent analysis of the tissue samples of Yulia Tymoshenko on regular basis in the future.

I appreciate the engagement and work of the foreign doctors who examined Yulia Tymoshenko last week. I am concerned about the misinformation campaign that followed the visit of these foreign doctors to the Ukraine and I am shocked about the statements from the Ukrainian Ministry of Health interpreting the early findings of the German and Canadian medical experts and also the attacks in the press on the profession capacity of the Canadian physicians.

Yulia Tymoshenko's health raises concerns that she has been maltreated while being in prison. I will forward the conclusions of my mission and my recommendations to Tymoshenko family and to the European People's Party Group in the coming days."