Lawyers Valentyna Telychenko and Serhiy Vlasenko will represent the interest of Yulia Tymoshenko before the European Court of Human Rights, according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.

According to a decision of the European Court of Human Rights, the case Tymoshenko v. Ukraine has been given priority status in view of the serious and sensitive nature of the allegations - making an illegal order for the signing of a contract concerning gas imports in 2009.

The application, lodged by the lawyers on August 10, 2011, alleges that Yulia Tymoshenko`s criminal prosecution and detention were politically motivated

The application also alleges that that there has been no judicial review of the lawfulness of her detention in Kyiv SIZO no. 13; and, that her detention conditions are inadequate, with no medical care provided for her numerous health problems. The submission relies principally on: Article 3 (prohibition of degrading treatment or punishment), Article 5 (right to liberty and security) and Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Report to the Ukrainian Government on the visit to Ukraine carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment from 9 to 21 September 2009 (published on 23 November 2011) was attached to the application.

The report notes that the some of the detention buildings of the Kyiv SIZO were constructed some 140 years ago and that the pre-trial detention facility was severely overcrowded.

The report also says that the level of hygiene was highly unsatisfactory. “In some cells the delegation saw cockroaches, and prisoners also referred to the presence of mice and rats. The in-cell sanitary installations (a partitioned toilet and sink) were generally in a decrepit state and were clearly not sufficient for the numbers of inmates held in the larger cells.”

The application also includes extracts from the 2010 Country Report on Human Rights and Practices of the US Department of State released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in respect of Ukraine, and the 9 June 2011 resolution adopted by the European Parliament that expresses concern about the selective prosecution of figures from the political opposition in Ukraine, including Yulia Tymoshenko, Yuriy Lutsenko and Yevhen Korniychuk.