Jailed ex-Ukrainian interior minister arrives at clinic - penitentiary service
KYIV. Jan 20 (Interfax) - Former Ukrainian interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who is serving a four-year term in jail, was moved on Sunday from Detention Facility No.91 in Mensk in Chernihiv region to the Oberig clinic in Kyiv, the State Penitentiary Service has reported.
"The clinic said in a letter that it will be prepared to provide the medical treatment, recommended by the Health Ministry, starting January 21," it said in a statement.
It also said citing the current legislation, that visits are not envisioned for inmates during their medical treatment at hospitals. "This was made clear to Lutsenko, and to his wife and defense attorney Iryna Lutsenko," the State Penitentiary Service said.
According to earlier reports, Lutsenko agreed to undergo surgery to remove an adhesion in his intestines in late December 2012. The surgery was expected to take place in early January. Larysa Sarhan, press officer for the party People's Self-Defense, said Lutsenko will be treated in a private clinic in Kyiv at his own expense.
On January 9, it became known that Lutsenko will be ready to be transferred to the Kyiv clinic Oberig on January 13-15. It subsequently emerged that he would be moved to the clinic on Monday, January 21. But Iryna Lutsenko said on Sunday, January 20, that her husband had been taken out of the Mensk prison already for his transfer to the Oberig clinic, where he will be examined and operated on.
Lutsenko has been serving a sentence for several crimes involving abuse of office in the Mensk colony since late August 2012.