Injured protester flees Ukraine after Western pressure

A protester who said he was kidnapped and tortured was flown out of Ukraine on Sunday after a dramatic stand-off between opposition leaders and police at the clinic treating him and a last-minute ruling by a Kiev court. Dmytro Bulatov, one of the activists behind the Avtomaidan movement that has helped spearhead protests, was driven to the airport by ambulance and took a flight to Riga. He will travel on to Lithuania for treatment, that country's foreign ministry said. Bulatov said he was seized and held for eight days by unidentified captors who cut off his ear and drove nails through his hands after the deadly clashes in Kiev last month. His case has caused international outrage, with the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton saying she was "appalled by the obvious signs of prolonged torture" on Bulatov. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has offered medical treatment. Latvia's foreign ministry said it had been informed that Bulatov was travelling to Riga. "He will not be receiving medical treatment here. According to our information he will be receiving treatment in a neighbouring country, which we believe is Lithuania," spokesman Karlis Eihenbaums told AFP. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara caused shock when he dismissed Bulatov's torture story and said he was in fact "in good condition" and only had "a scratch". The 35-year-old activist stumbled into a village outside Kiev on Thursday, saying he had been dumped in a forest by his kidnappers. "They crucified me, nailed me, cut my ear off, cut my face," Bulatov said in shocking images shown on Channel 5 television, his face swollen and covered in caked blood. "I can't see well now, because I sat in darkness the whole time," Bulatov said, still wearing his blood-stained clothes. The interior ministry said it was looking into his disappearance but asserted that the injuries may have been "staged". While he was away, the police identified Bulatov as one of the organisers of major clashes with riot police in Kiev. In the last few days, officers with a formal order for Bulatov to appear in court have been prevented from entering the private clinic where he was being treated by protesters picketing outside. Pro-opposition tycoon Petro Poroshenko and other protest leaders said they were planning to "liberate" Bulatov and later went to the clinic, as riot police gathered outside. The standoff lasted until a Kiev court gave the go-ahead for Bulatov to leave the country to receive medical treatment, although it was not clear whether charges were being dropped. "Following a request from prosecutors, the Kiev court has authorised him to go abroad," Lilia Frolova, the deputy prosecutor general, told reporters. "This decision was taken after receiving requests from Bulatov, his family, some lawmakers and international institutions," Frolova said. Bulatov's disappearance had caused great concern because it followed other cases of apparent kidnappings of prominent activists from the opposition protests in central Kiev. One of the activists, Yuriy Verbytsky, was found dead in the forest while another, Igor Lutsenko, survived a severe beating and was hospitalised. Avtomaidan is a loose group of drivers who have organised protest motorcades near Yanukovych's sprawling country estate in Mezhygirya outside Kiev. Its members have come under immense pressure from the authorities and some have gone into hiding or left the country.