KIEV, Nov. 21 - Ukraine's human rights envoy and a member of the pro-government party, Nina Karpacheva, said Monday that jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has "extremely serious" health problems.

The envoy said that during a visit to her Kiev prison cell on Sunday night, Tymoshenko, 50, could not get out of bed, BBC reported.

Karpacheva said the former prime minister needed to be examined and treated outside the prison.

This comes days after Tymoshenko asked international medical organizations to help examine and treat her worsening health conditions.

Tymoshenko is reportedly suffering from severe back pain and from mysterious bruises on her body. She says she doesn’t trust government-appointed doctors and accuses authorities of refusing to let independent medical experts see her.

Tymoshenko’s top aide Oleksandr Turchynov said she has turned to the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders and asked them to intervene to help her get examined and treated properly.

Tymoshenko was jailed last month for seven years for abuse of office while negotiating a controversial natural gas agreement with Russia January 2009.

She denied the charges, accusing President Viktor Yanukovych, an old political opponent, of orchestrating a conspiracy against her.

Western leaders were among those who protested at her sentence amid concerns that the Ukrainian government had been drifting towards restricting democracy and freedoms.

The U.S. and the European Union have sharply condemned Tymoshenko’s sentence last month as politically motivated.
Tymoshenko’s office said authorities have ignored the fact that Tymoshenko cannot walk or stand up because of the back pain and have held daily hours-long interrogations in her jail cell, questioning her as she lay in bed, unable to move.

Ukraine's prison service confirmed earlier this month that Tymoshenko injured her back two days earlier during a prison yard walk but blamed her own "carelessness".

Tymoshenko also complained of various health problems during her trial.

Karpacheva, a human rights ombudsman nominated by the Ukrainian parliament, said she made an unannounced visit to Lukyanivska prison where Tymoshenko is being held in a cell along with two other women.

Karpacheva told Ukrainian radio: "Her condition is extremely grave, she could not get out of bed when talking to me. She needs examination and treatment outside the detention centre."

However, she did not say what was wrong with Ms Tymoshenko.

Karpacheva also said it was unacceptable that Ms Tymoshenko was now being interrogated by investigators in her prison cell - a practice the human rights envoy said had not occurred in Ukraine since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Tymoshenko was charged on 11 November with new offences dating back to the 1990s, which she also denies.
These include tax evasion, theft and concealing foreign currency revenues while serving as head of United Energy Systems of Ukraine - a gas company she formed in the mid-1990s to supply Ukrainian industry.

Correspondents say the new charges lessen her chances of being released from prison in the near future. (bbc/ez)