Beaten activist to leave Ukraine

Dmytro Bulatov, a Ukrainian opposition activist whose torture at the hands of kidnappers has angered anti-government protesters, has been allowed by police to leave hospital and will fly to Latvia for treatment, Vitaly Klitschko, an opposition leader, told Reuters.

Klitschko, speaking at the Kiev clinic where friends of Bulatov and medical staff have thwarted police attempts to arrest the activist since Thursday, said the Interior Ministry had assured him that Bulatov was now free to leave the country.

Aides to another opposition politician, parliamentarian and business magnate Petro Poroshenko, said Bulatov had been driven away from the hospital, heading for the airport.

European Union leaders, who support opponents of President Viktor Yanukovich, had offered Bulatov treatment after he was found bloodied and injured in woods outside the capital and said he had been crucified and beaten by unidentified assailants during a week in captivity.