The State Prison Service had no right to conduct a search of the hospital ward of former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, who is undergoing treatment in Central Clinical Hospital No. 5, in Kharkiv, the defense lawyer of former prime minister Serhiy Vlasenko has said.
He also said that the medicines found during the search, which took place in the ex-minister's ward on Thursday, were taken not from Tymoshenko, but from medical staff.
"In accordance with the current legislation, the penitentiary system's administration has the right to conduct searches only in the penal colony, thus there can be no searches in health care facilities under existing law," Vlasenko told reporters on Monday near the hospital where Tymoshenko is undergoing treatment.
He denied claims by the prison service that unknown medicines were seized from Tymoshenko as a result of a search of her ward.
"The drugs were taken from doctors, medical staff. This means that Yulia Tymoshenko has nothing to do with these drugs... This is not the first time that the prison service has said some nonsense about Tymoshenko's medications," Vlasenko said.
On September 13, the press service of the State Penitentiary Service said that a secret compartment in a copy of the Criminal Code of Ukraine was found in Tymoshenko's ward in Central Clinical Hospital in Kharkiv. The cache contained prohibited electronic devices and medicines of unknown origin.
Tymoshenko's lawyer, Oleksandr Plakhotniuk made public the ex-premier's statement that the radiation dosimeters, which were taken from her on September 13, had several times registered radiation levels that exceeded permissible levels over the time of her hospital treatment, and had asked that she be given new dosimeters.
