Behind bars

Ukrainian opposition figure and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution, was sentenced in October to seven years in prison for abuse of power during her time in office. She has maintained her innocence and accused President Viktor Yanukovych of trying to silence her. In an interview with DW, Tymoshenko's daughter, Yevhenia, has accused authorities of endangering her mother's life in prison.

DW: On German television last week, you talked about the danger to your mother's life. Why do you believe this? What are Ukrainian authorities doing to your mother in prison?

Yevhenia Tymoshenko: On the evening of January 6, after taking some medicine from the prison doctors, my mother fell unconscious for about two hours straight after coming out of the shower. Before falling unconscious she asked her neighbors to call for the doctors. The prison doctors didn't come for about 20 minutes, and when they eventually came they refused to call the intensive care ambulance, and they just called some other doctors from the prison.

Why did the doctors and the security guards, who saw on the 24-hour video surveillance that my mother was unconscious, not come in until 20 minutes later, even though the security post is about one meter from the cell? Obviously, they could hear the screams and knocking through the door. The doctors gave some injections to make sure her blood pressure went back to normal, but her blood pressure was 60/40 and her body temperature was 35 degrees [Celsius], so it's a very dangerous state, it's critical for life, but still nobody called the intensive care ambulance.

The next day she was taken in for diagnosis. She didn't refuse because she was scared for her life. So they did scans and blood tests, but they didn't give her any results. They didn't show them to me, to the family or to the defense team. They [are] still [keeping] it secret. We can't get any diagnosis or any reason from the doctors as to why she fell unconscious.

In addition, doctors from the Ministry [of Health] have been denying that she fell unconscious, and when we asked for the video recordings, they said they [had not been] recording. [But then] they published a statement [saying] that she fell unconscious because she showered for too long, for 30 minutes.

The ministry also made statements about how she is in normal health, that nothing much happened, that she was taken in for a planned diagnosis when she was taken to the hospital on the [day she was treated].

All the facts put together, it means they didn't want to save her. They gave her some medicine that caused this situation, they don't want to prove that she was in bad health. She fell unconscious [due to] their mistake, and the doctor didn't come for 20 minutes, and this all proves that her life is at risk. If something happens to her we don't know whether she'll get appropriate medical help.

Now you're looking for public attention in Germany. What could Germany do?

I'm just trying to call for help, for the attention of the public, of the people, of the European community to see what's going on. It's evident, the obvious physical destruction of one person who has now become the main opponent to the regime.

She and her party have become more popular than Yanukovych's party. It's at least a 2 percent difference between them now, and her popularity is growing, and that's exactly the reason why she's been illegally kept in prison and arrested on absurd charges.

The European community and the leaders of the European Union and the leaders of the democratic world in general are supporting us, they are very concerned about it, and we are very thankful to them for this, but now I wanted to get the message to everyone that it's critical and now her life is in danger as well.

Are you starting an international campaign to isolate Yanukovych?

I think, actually, that his actions are isolating him. We saw the evidence during the failed summit on December 19, where the [EU] association agreement wasn't signed. European leaders are obviously against signing this agreement with this person who has become a dictator and oppressor of his people and the opposition in his country. He's doing damage to himself every day.

Ukraine is scheduled to have a parliamentary election in October. Will you run?

No, I'm not a politician. I just want my mother to come out of prison and run for the parliamentary election and presidential election, because she's really the only leader we have left who is fighting the regime and has been doing it for the 15 years of her political career.

Interview: Tetyana Bondarenko / slk
Editor: Martin Kuebler, Nancy Isenson