Health Ministry :Jailed former PM in satisfactory condition

Ukraine's Health Ministry said Thursday that the medical examination showed the health of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is in "satisfactory condition." The ministry's press service said in a report on its website that Tymoshenko, who is serving her seven-year sentence in a remote prison, has been examined by a commission including nine leading experts in various fields of medicine. After the examination Tymoshenko was advised to do more physical exercises and to get therapeutic massage for musculoskeletal pain due to her back problems. During the examination, Tymoshenko was offered to have her blood tests done at Health Ministry medical centers, but the offer was rejected, the ministry said, while adding that the ex-premier' s defense team continues to press for an independent test of her blood. On Tuesday Tymoshenko's defense lawyer Sergey Vlasenko said that the former prime minister has been suffering from severe back pains and her health has not improved since she has been moved from the pre-trial detention ward in Kiev to a prison in Kharkov region in eastern Ukraine. The ex-premier had been held in custody and convicted by Kiev Pechersk District Court on Oct. 11 of exceeding her power in a 2009 gas deal with Russia. On Dec. 30 Tymoshenko was moved to a prison from a detention center where she has been held since August.