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A plainclothes policeman catches a woman during a police crackdown on prostitution in Quanzhou, Fujian province, October 29, 2011. China should remove criminal and administrative penalties against sex workers which often lead to serious police abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on May 14, 2013. The abuses include torture, beatings, physical assaults, fines and arbitrary detentions of up to two years, as well as a failure to investigate crimes against sex workers by clients, bosses and state agents, according to the report. Prostitution is not permitted under Chinese law, although the industry has boomed since the country launched economic reforms in 1978. REUTERS/Stringer

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Ukrainian minister says Tymoshenko completes medical treatment

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A portrait of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (R) is seen in front of the portraits of Hitler (L-2nd R), Stalin, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in a camp of Tymoshenko supporters in central Kiev July 10, 2012. REUTERS/Anatolii Stepanov (UKRAINE - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW BUSINESS)

A portrait of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (R) is seen in front of the portraits of Hitler (L-2nd R), Stalin, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in a camp of Tymoshenko supporters in central Kiev July 10, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Anatolii Stepanov (UKRAINE - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW BUSINESS)

KIEV | Fri Jul 27, 2012 10:02am EDT

KIEV (Reuters) - Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose jailing for abuse of power soured Ukraine's relations with the European Union, has completed her medical treatment at a local hospital, Healthcare Minister Raisa Bohatyryova was quoted as saying on Friday.

Treatment for a back complaint has kept Tymoshenko, President Viktor Yanukovich's main rival, out of jail for almost three months, and Bohatyryova's statement did not say whether the authorities would now return her to prison.

"An international commission which includes German and Ukrainian doctors ... states that the rehabilitation process has been completed successfully," Interfax news agency quoted Bohatyryova as saying.

The West has condemned Tymoshenko's jailing last October as an example of selective justice and the EU stopped free trade deals and political association with Kiev and urged her release.

But Yanukovich has refused to intervene and state prosecutors have instead piled more charges on Tymoshenko. Hearings in a fresh tax evasion case against her are due to resume on July 31.

Tymoshenko, 51, who was a leader of the 2004 "Orange Revolution" protests which derailed Yanukovich's first bid for the presidency, has dismissed all charges against her as part of political vendetta by Yanukovich.

She served twice as prime minister and narrowly lost the 2010 presidential election to Yanukovich.

A coalition which includes her party Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) will be the main competitor of Yanukovich's Party of the Regions in the October parliamentary election.

On Friday, the Healthcare Ministry declined immediate comment and the prison service could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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Comments (1)
Neil_McGowan wrote:
1) All of Ukraine’s end-users of gas – domestic users, businesses, industry – paid their bills on time to the State gas company. If not, they were cut off within two months.

2) But mysteriously, at the end of the year – there was no money! It had all disappeared!

3) So can Yulia explain where it went?

Jul 28, 2012 12:33pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
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