Ukraine's Tymoshenko demands to be returned to prison

Jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has demanded to be transferred from hospital back to prison, dpa quoted her lawyer Sergei Vlasenko as saying on Friday. The former premier, who is serving a seven-year jail sentence, said she was being subjected to "inhumane and absolutely awful" permanent observation by video cameras at the hospital in Kharkiv, north-east Ukraine. Unknown people had this week published clips filmed in Tymoshenko's hospital room on the internet, her lawyer said. "It's outrageous," he said. Initially after their publication he had said they were faked. Tymoshenko has written to her political foe President Viktor Yanukovych to demand her transferral. The move could serve to further inflame the political situation in the country where parliamentary elections are due on October 28. The 51-year-old opposition leader was last year found guilty on abuse of office charges connected to a natural gas import deal signed with Russia in 2009, when she was prime minister. Since being in prison she has had back problems but distrusts local doctors and has been treated by German specialists from a clinic in Berlin. The German doctors have also criticized conditions in the hospital, saying they were stressful for their patient. In a letter apparently from the Berlin clinic, published on Tymoshenko's website, doctors said the conditions in the hospital meant suitable therapy was not possible. The clinic said it was prepared to treat her in Berlin.