Lutsenko transferred from prison to clinic in Kyiv- wife
Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has been moved from a detention facility in Mena in Chernihiv region to the private clinic Oberig in Kyiv, where he will undergo an examination and surgery, Lutsenko's wife Iryna, who is a parliamentary deputy, told journalists.
"I saw a motorcade leaving the prison after I reached the Mena detention facility. I was told he had been moved out of the prison," she said.
Iryna Lutsenko said the purpose of her arrival at the prison was to get permission to see her husband at the clinic.
"But in the absence of the prison chief or an official responsible for issuing such permits, I was told by an officer on duty that he had no right to provide such permits," she said.
Iryna urged reporters "not to create too great a stir" near the hospital, saying, citing prison officials, that Lutsenko will be moved back to prison if peace is disturbed in or outside the clinic.
Kyiv's Oberig universal medical clinic is ready to accept Ukraine's former interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko for planned surgery on January 21, the press service for the Ukrainian State Penitentiary Service reported.
"On January 16, the administration of the Mena corrections colony (№91) familiarized Yuriy Lutsenko, in the presence of his lawyer (Iryna Lutsenko), with a letter from Kyiv's Oberig universal medical clinic on the readiness of this establishment to accept Yuriy Lutsenko for a recommended medical procedure on January 21," the report says.
The penitentiary service assured that appropriate measures will be taken to transfer Lutsenko to the clinic.
According to earlier reports, Lutsenko agreed to undergo surgery to remove an adhesion in his intestines in late December 2012. The surgery was expected to take place in early January. Larysa Sarhan, press officer for the People's Self-Defense Party, said Lutsenko will be treated in a private clinic in Kyiv at his own expense.
On January 9, it became known that Lutsenko will be ready to be transferred to the Kyiv clinic Oberig on January 13-15.
Lutsenko has been serving a sentence for several crimes involving abuse of office in the Mena colony, Chernihiv region, since late August 2012.