Brussels seeks 'clarification' on hunger-striking Tymoshenko

(BRUSSELS) - The EU executive on Tuesday demanded urgent "clarification" from the Ukraine authorities on jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko, who is on a hunger strike to protest her treatment.

"We are urgently seeking clarification from the Ukrainian authorities on the situation of Mrs Tymoshenko and insisting that appropriate independent persons, and her legal advisers, should immediately have access to her for a sufficient duration," said a European Commission spokesman.

Peter Stano, a spokesman for Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, said Brussels had been informed she began the strike "following claims that she was submitted to violent treatment during transfer from her prison cell to a hospital on 20 April."

"We will not comment further until objective and reliable information is available," he added in a statement.

Tymoshenko's lawyer earlier said she had been on a hunger strike for five days to protest her treatment and demand an end to political repression.

"Yulia Tymoshenko began a hunger strike on Friday," lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko told AFP after visiting Tymoshenko in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she has been jailed since last year on abuse-of-office charges.