The German and Canadian doctors that examined Yulia Tymoshenko concluded that there are serious problems with her health, lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko has said, according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.

"The German and Canadian doctors said absolutely clearly that Yulia Tymoshenko’s health condition is serious, they noted problems with her back, which the ex-premier and defense have been talking about for four months," Serhiy Vlasenko told reporters outside the Kachanivska prison.

He claims that officials of the Ministry of Health were aware of true state of Yulia Tymoshenko’s health. "But the Ministry of Health proposed physical exercise as treatment and even forbade crutches, while the independent doctors are saying she requires serious comprehensive treatment, including possible surgical intervention. Those are roughly the findings of the German and Canadian doctors," he said.

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The ex-premier’s lawyer said that Yulia Tymoshenko still does not know the results of the examination conducted over two days by the foreign doctors. "Yulia Tymoshenko had the envelope (with the results) for several minutes and then it was taken away," he said.

"As soon as we have the results, we will go public with part of them,” he added.

According to him, the doctors’ preliminary findings are that Yulia Tymoshenko needs complex treatment. "This kind of treatment is impossible to provide in a prison because it is serious treatment," he said.

Serhiy Vlasenko also noted that officials of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine are already trying to manipulate the results of the examination.

"It’s hard to call what happened behind the walls of the Kachanivska prison during these two days normal work of a medical commission. Officials of the Ministry of Health, in particular Deputy Minister Raisa Moyseyenko and Mr. Polyakov, the head of the medical department of the State Prison Service, were pressuring Yulia Tymoshenko and the foreign doctors to violate basic principles of doctor-patient confidentiality. Officials from the health ministry used blackmail, threatened to stop the doctors’ work and to disclose information about her health," he said.

The lawyer noted that such actions can be considered a crime. "As soon as the letter was given to prison officials, strange information was going around. This is direct interference in someone’s private life, and a punishable criminal offense," he said.