KIEV — Jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday accused President Viktor Yanukovych of using Stalinist methods against her after prison officials confiscated devices that she said revealed high radiation levels in her hospital quarters.
The former prime minister accused Yanukovych of being behind the unusually high dosages of radiation in her hospital ward.
"Only he is capable now of taking special measures against my health and my life," she said.
Tymoshenko made her allegations in a statement on her party's website after prison officials carried out a search of her hospital room in the city of Kharkiv, where she is confined with back trouble, and took away some of her possessions.
"Today a search worthy of the best traditions of 1937 was carried out in my ward," Tymoshenko said, referring to the purges of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
The 51-year-old politician is serving a seven-year sentence in Kharkiv on an abuse-of-office charge linked to a gas deal she brokered with Russia in 2009 when she was prime minister.
Tymoshenko said the devices had been given to her to measure radiation levels and on four occasions they had shown that acceptable levels were exceeded. She did not say who had given her the devices.
"I had planned to pass these devices soon to my defense counsel for this information to be made public," she said. "I am convinced this search was organized on the direct orders of Yanukovych and aimed at confiscating the devices."
Ukraine's prison service confirmed officials had searched her hospital quarters on Thursday and confiscated "technical devices" and medicine of unknown origin, which they found hidden.
"These objects and medicines have been handed over for examination," the prison service said in a statement.
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