Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, convicted on charges of abuse of office, will be serving her sentence in the Kachanovskaya Penal Colony in the country’s Kharkov region, the penitentiary service said on Friday.
The former prime minister was jailed for seven years in October for acting beyond her powers in sealing a gas deal with Russia in 2009.
“Yulia Tymoshenko was convoyed to the prison in the Kharkov region at 8:00 a.m. local time [6:00 GMT]. Doctors examined her before leaving and concluded that her health did not impair her transportation,” the service said in a statement.
Media reports said earlier that Tymoshenko left the pretrial detention ward in a wheelchair as she was unable to walk, but the penitentiary service refuted this information.
The service said that she was taken to the prison in a comfortable minibus, while a separate vehicle delivered her language that consisted of 12 suitcases.
Serhiy Vlasenko, a lawyer for Tymoshenko, has confirmed that the former prime minister was delivered to the Kachanovskaya Penal Colony where 900 other inmates are serving their time, including 14 serving life sentences.
The prosecution and imprisonment of Tymoshenko, a heroine of the country’s Western-leaning 2004 Orange Revolution, have been widely criticized abroad.
The 51-year-old insists she is a victim of a conspiracy by President Viktor Yanukovych, her long-time political opponent. Yanukovych denies the allegations.
