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Lutsenko moved to SIZO medical unit

10.05.2011   
Yury Lutsenko, former Minister of Internal Affairs in Yulia Tymoshenko’s government and leader of the People’s Self-Defence Party, has been on hunger strike since 23 April in protest at the decision to remand him in custody for yet another month

 

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Iryna Lutsenko spoke of the deterioration in her husband’s health.  Yury Lutsenko, former Minister of Internal Affairs in Yulia Tymoshenko’s government and leader of the People’s Self-Defence Party, has been on hunger strike since 23 April in protest at the decision to remand him in custody for yet another month. Lutsenko has been held in the Kyiv SIZO [pre-trial detention centre] since December last year on charges which have elicited criticism and statements of concern both within Ukraine and abroad.

Iryna Lutsenko told journalists that her husband’s condition was steadily deteriorating, and that he had now lost 20 kilograms since he began his hunger strike.

She said that the SIZO Administration had asked the Prosecutor General’s Office for permission to begin force feeding but that the Prosecutor General did not dare to give it. As reported, Yury Lutsenko stated publicly, via his wife, last week that he would resist any such force feeding. Iryna Lutsenko said that the Prosecutor General knows very well that such a move, against the person’s will, is effectively a form of torture.

On the other hand the former Minister’s wife believes that full responsibility for her husband’s situation lies with President Yanukovych and speaks of vengeful elements from the present regime with regard to her husband.

Ukrainska Pravda quotes Yury Lutsenko’s lawyer, Ihor Fomin as saying that his client had been transferred to the SIZO medical unit on 8 May. He confirmed the general report regarding Yury Lutsenko’s state of health given by Iryna Lutsenko.

On that same day, 8 May, the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that Lutsenko’s state of health was “satisfactory”.

From reports at UNIAN and Ukrainska Pravda

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