KIEV, Ukraine — Yulia Tymoshenko, the darling of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution who went on to become prime minister, is wasting away in prison — weakened from a hunger strike, bruised from prison beatings and afraid she will be force-fed by her political foes, her family said Friday.
Western concern about Tymoshenko has soared since she launched a hunger strike a week ago to protest alleged prison abuse. She claims that guards punched her in the stomach and twisted her arms and legs while forcibly taking her to a hospital to be treated for debilitating back pain.
It is a dramatic reversal for a woman who became a global icon of democratic change during Ukraine’s 2004 rallies against a stolen presidential election, in which she mesmerized the nation with ringing speeches from a frozen Kiev square as thousands of protesters huddled in a tent village.
Tymoshenko appears pallid and worn-out in prison photos taken by Ukraine’s top human-rights official — a shadow of the glamorous figure who once faced crowds in haute-couture gowns and golden braids. The pictures by Nina Karpachova show blotches on Tymoshenko’s abdomen and lower arm.
Tymoshenko’s daughter said her mother’s health was failing rapidly.
“She was in intense pain,” Eugenia Tymoshenko said in a telephone interview. “She is very weak; she hasn’t eaten for seven days, only drinking water.”
Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year prison sentence on charges of abusing her powers in a Russian energy deal. The West has strongly condemned the verdict as politically motivated and threatened to freeze cooperation with Ukraine.
She faces separate charges of evading several million dollars in taxes while heading an energy company in the mid-1990s. A court appearance in that case is scheduled today. Her daughter wasn’t sure whether her mother would be forced to appear.
