Tymoshenko announces hunger strike

Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s jailed former prime minister, announced yesterday that she began a hunger strike on April 20 to draw international attention to political prisoners in Ukraine, according to an announcement on her website. At the same time, Tymoshenko alleged that she had been beaten in jail last Friday after refusing to receive medical care at a state-appointed facility until she had consulted with her lawyer. A state prosecutor in Kharkiv region said there was no evidence to support Tymsohenko’s claims of physical abuse in jail, Kommersant reported this morning.