KIEV, Dec. 7 – Concerns over the rule of law in Ukraine were raised to new levels Wednesday after a court decided to visit Yulia Tymoshenko in jail to make a ruling on new charges pursued by the authorities.

The decision allows judges, prosecutors and security service investigators to swarm on the cell - where Tymoshenko apparently lies in bed suffering from severe back pain – to rule on whether she must also be kept in custody based on the new charges.

Such a court ruling – right from the jail cell – would be a stretch even for Ukrainian legal system standards, which have already been repeatedly criticized by international leaders.

The ruling may further increase pressure on President Viktor Yanukovych, who hopes to initial an agreement on political association and free trade between Ukraine and the European Union at a summit in Kiev on December 19.

Nina Karpacheva, Ukraine’s human rights envoy and a member of the governing Regions Party, said Wednesday that holding the court session in jail would most definitely violate European norms.

“This is a strictly guarded site, which means that the court session will be in a closed format, and this means that Ukraine once again violates norms of the European convention,” Karpacheva said. “We are again drifting away from Europe, unfortunately.”

Serhiy Vlasenko, the leader of Tymoshenko’s legal defense team, said: “These are illegal, absurd actions that do not comply with any logic.”

The procession of judges, prosecutors and security service investigators and prison guard already visited Tymoshenko in the cell late Wednesday.

But since it was after 6:30 pm, the judges had decided to cancel the session and to come again on Thursday morning, Ukrayinska Pravda reported citing a source familiar with the developments.

Tymoshenko, suffering from severe back pain, has been lying in the bed all this time, Vlasenko said.

“She did not get up,” Vlasenko said. “She cannot get up due to the poor state og health.”

Tymoshenko’s poor health was the reason why the Shevchenkovskiy district court in Kiev decided earlier Wednesday to come to the jail for the court session over the new charges.

The charges, pursued by the SBU security service, affect some of the allegations dating back 15 years ago when Tymoshenko was the owner and the head of highly profitable gas trader, the United Energy Systems of Ukraine.

SBU on Wednesday issued an unusually long statement explaining that the Ukrainian law allows the court to decide twice on whether a suspect must be kept in custody based on different charges.

Mykhaylo Lyvynskiy, Tymoshenko’s ally, said the developments underscore the fact that the authorities desperately want Tymoshenko to stay in jail, even if the first set of charges are lifted under pressure from European officials.

“They decided that even if they make concessions to Europe and move to change [the previous] sentence, they will not let Tymoshenko out. She will stay in jail, only based on other charges.” (tl/ez)