A witness in a criminal case against imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko says that she had no conflict with Donetsk multimillionaire and member of parliament Yevhen Shcherban, who was assassinated in 1996.
The witness also testified that Tymoshenko’s gas-trading company did
not benefit from the slaying.
That is what Serhiy Taruta, a co-owner of the Industrial Union of
Donbas Corporation, is being quoted as saying. Taruta, a former business
partner of Shcherban, made the comments to Ukrainska Pravda news website on
Feb. 8.
Taruta said he was called to the general prosecutor to testify
regarding the case “about three or four times.”
He claims that Tymoshenko’s United Energy Systems of Ukraine gas
trading company was not in conflict with Shcherban’s Industrial Union of
Donbas. “All business conflicts between us were over by January 1996 – nine
months before Shcherban’s murder. In January we were already in the same boat,”
Taruta told Ukrainska Pravda.
This undercuts the
accusations by the general prosecutor, who claims Tymoshenko wanted to
eliminate Shcherban because of the business conflict.
According to the indictment, published by various media online:
“Shcherban was publicly against expansion of representatives of Dnipropetrovsk
region to Donetsk Oblast, UESU in particular, as he considered it to have negative
impact on economic and social development of the Donetsk region… Thus, with the
goal of diminishing influence of the wholesale gas importer [Tymoshenko’s] UESU
on the economy of Donetsk region, Shcherban initiated the issuing of order of
the Donetsk Oblast administration on Feb. 12, 1996 #71 ‘On securing the supply
of natural gas and timely payments for the gas in 1996.’ The first article of
the order defined the Industrial Union of Donbas corporation as the sole
organization which has the right to sign contracts with wholesale importers of
natural gas for further distribution of gas to firms of Donetsk Oblast and
collecting payments for it, in accordance with demand of the customers, the
needs of population, housing and social sphere of oblast. Thus with the
mentioned order initiated by Shcherban UESU was prevented from directly making
deals with companies-buyers of natural gas for profitable prices. This led to
reducing of UESU profits in Donetsk region and, as a result, reducing of
personal incomes of T. and L.”
Taruta, however, dismisses these charges and said that the order of the
Donetsk Oblast administration did not prevent Tymoshenko’s UESU from trading
with the Industrial Union of Donbas: “After the order of Shcherban, (firms)
have started to sign contracts with us. Without this (order) there would be
nothing – not for us, not for UESU… So it was good for everyone.”
He also claims that any natural gas conflicts between the financial
group from Donetsk, which Shcherban and Taruta belonged to, and Dnipropetrovsk,
which Tymoshenko and former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko belonged to, were
over in 1995.
“By 1996 we have received from UESU…the specifications on the goods to
be traded for natural gas… Shcherban’s murder did not change the scheme,
because the contract was signed for a year,” Taruta said.
The Ukrainian court will soon start pre-trial hearings against
Tymoshenko for allegedly ordering the contract killing of Shcherban.
Another trial, on
charges of embezzlement back in the 1990s when Tymoshenko ran UESU, has been
repeatedly delayed since last April due to her refusal to attend. The next
hearing is expected to take place on March 5.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
