Only permission of the administration of the Kachanivska Penal Colony (Kharkiv) is needed to return former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko to prison from hospital, the ex-premier's defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko has said.

"The administration of the Kachanivska Penal Colony should make a decision on the issue," Vlasenko told journalists outside Central Clinical Hospital of Kharkiv No. 5 on Monday.

According to Vlasenko, the doctors from the German Charite Clinic completely support the position of Tymoshenko, who refused to continue the treatment course when a video recorded in her ward was posted in the Internet.

"She made the decision [to stop the treatment] was made after consultations with the German doctors. In their statement, which I quoted at a press conference on Friday, they obviously supported Yulia Volodymyrivna, as the situation on the ninth floor of the clinic does not comply with either human morals, or medical ethics, as well as has nothing in common with the Ukrainian and international legislation. The German doctors expressed their opinion in a letter and sent it to the management of Central Clinical Hospital No. 5," Vlasenko said.

As reported, Chief of Central Clinical Hospital of Kharkiv No. 5 Mykhailo Afanasyev said that the doctors from the German Charite Clinic will decide whether former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko should be discharged from Central Clinical Hospital of Kharkiv No. 5.

"We have received a request from patient Tymoshenko and it is being translated into German. The information about the patient's wish to be discharged from the hospital will be sent to the Charite Clinic, to the doctors in charge of her treatment. As long as our German colleagues are fully responsible for the rehabilitation course, its planning and implementation, it is logical that they have to decide whether the rehabilitation course could be completed. Speaking about Ukrainian doctors, from our part we cannot make such decisions. We are just thoroughly fulfilling the recommendations of doctors from the Charite Clinic," Afanasyev said.

Earlier, Tymoshenko wrote an open letter to the president with a request to return her from the clinic to the prison. She also complained about round the clock video surveillance in her ward.

On October 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for overstepping her authority when signing 2009 gas contracts with Russia. She has served her sentence in Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv since late December 2011.

On May 9, Tymoshenko was transferred to Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv for treatment. The ex-premier's course of treatment in hospital was drawn up by German doctors from the Charite Clinic.