Tymoshenko moved to new hospital

Yulia Tymoshenko, the jailed opposition leader, has ended her 20-day hunger strike after being moved to a local hospital to be treated by a German doctor.

The former Prime Minister, who has a herniated disc in her spine, had refused treatment from Ukrainian doctors for severe back pain, saying she feared she would be deliberately poisoned.

The Ukrainian authorities refused her request to leave the country for treatment.

Ms Tymoshenko, 51, said she was assaulted by prison guards during an attempt to move her to hospital and went on hunger strike on 20 April in protest.

Early yesterday Ms Tymoshenko, 51, was moved to a hospital in Kharkiv in a high-security police convoy. She is being treated by Professor Lutz Harms, a German neurologist.

She was jailed last October for seven years for alleged abuse of power. She claims she is the victim of a vendetta by Mr Yanukovich who narrowly beat her for the presidency in February 2010. The European Union and the United States condemned her trial and have called for her to be released.