KIEV, Feb. 16 – Ukraine’s jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko’s defense team and government-appointed doctors clashed Thursday over whether she must be treated outside prison following a three day-examination by German and Canadian physicians.

Raisa Moiseyenko, a deputy healthcare minister and the government-appointed head of a medical team examining Tymoshenko, said “there was no need for hospitalization and surgery.”

But Serhiy Vlasenko, Tymoshenko’s defense lawyer, accused Moiseyenko of “manipulation,” adding that German and Canadian doctors have actually not ruled out surgery to treat Tymoshenko for back pain.

“Foreign specialists have so far not come to the final conclusion and do not rule out the need for surgical treatment,” Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party said in a statement citing Vlasenko.

The conclusions by German and Canadian doctors, written after examining Tymoshenko in her Kharkiv prison cell, have not been disclosed.

Tymoshenko may have a herniated disc that has been causing back pain, and this may require surgery outside the prison, Ukraynska Pravda reported Wednesday citing an undisclosed source.

The report came hours after two German doctors had examined Tymoshenko in the Kharkiv prison.

A herniated disc happens when discs in the spine bulge from their proper place. This is most common in the lower spine.

Moiseyenko, who by her status as the head of the team must have seen the conclusions by German and Canadian doctors, said the “herniated disc” had not been mentioned in the conclusions.

“The suggested treatment confirms earlier conclusiosn by Ukrainian doctors, and there is no talk of the surgery at the moment,” Moiseyenko said.

But Vlasenko, who managed to speak with Tymoshenko after the medical exams, accused Moiseyenko of “manipulation.” He added that Tymoshenko had been under “huge pressure” from the prison authorities over the past two days.

Tymoshenko “needs serious and complex treatment that does not rule out surgical invasion, which is impossible to perform in the prison,” Vlasenko said.

Tymoshenko, in custody since August 5, 2011, was jailed to seven years in prison in October for abuse of power while ordering to sign a controversial natural gas agreement with Russia in January 2009. She lost the appeal in December and is currently serving jail sentence in the Kharkiv prison.

Tymoshenko have been complaining of acute back pain in jail for months, and at some point has also reported a mysterious rash on her body. She refused to be examined by Ukrainian doctors amid concerns her illnesses may be disclosed by prison authorities without her will. (tl/ez)