Tymoshenko case postponed

KHARKOV, Ukraine, May 2 (UPI) -- A Ukrainian court has postponed a hearing in a second trial of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, citing health concerns over her prison hunger strike.

Tymoshenko, serving a seven-year sentence in a Kharkov, Ukraine, jail for abuse of power, began a hunger strike April 20 to protest her alleged mistreatment, claiming guards punched her while she was transported to a prison hospital for back pain. Her claims have raised concerns in Europe over human rights violations and alleged political motivations of her imprisonment, and European countries have threatened to freeze cooperation with Ukraine, Fox News said Wednesday.

Her second trial, for allegedly evading taxes while heading an energy company in the 1990s, was postponed until May 21 by Kharkov District Court Judge Kostyantyn Sadovski, who decided "to consider impossible the consideration of Tymoshenko's case without her participation," Ukrainian Internet news service ForUm reported Wednesday.