Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's defense attorneys, lawmakers Andriy Kozhemiakin and Serhiy Vlasenko, have refused to accept the notification saying that Tymoshenko is suspected of organizing the murder of parliamentary deputy Yevhen Scherban, Head of the Main Investigatory Department for Special Cases of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine Andriy Kurys said.
The new criminal procedural code does not oblige investigators to
inform defense lawyers that their client is under suspicion. Only after
the notification has been accepted does the suspect get the right to
draw defense lawyers. However, the investigators probing the murder of
parliamentary deputy Scherban invited Tymoshenko’s defense attorneys
Kozhemiakin and Vlasenko on Friday, January 18, to hand the notification
to them. The procedure was filmed and the video will be referred to the
court,” Kurys told Interfax-Ukraine.
Tymoshenko’s rights have not been violated, as no investigative
actions were carried out with regards to her. In accordance with the new
Criminal Procedure Code this is possible only after the notification
has been handed over to the suspect, he added. “All investigative
actions connected with Tymoshenko will be carried out in the presence of
her defense attorneys. So we have sent the notification out by mail and
by telephone,” he said.
Kurys said investigators and prosecutors strictly follow the law and respect the suspect’s right to defense.
Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said at a news conference on
January 18 that the Prosecutor General’s Office had completed an
investigation into the 1996 murder of parliamentarian Yevhen Scherban
and notified Tymoshenko on the same day that she and former Prime
Minister Pavlo Lazarenko are suspected of organizing this murder for
mercenary reasons.
“The [Criminal Code] article under which Tymoshenko is suspected
[Criminal Code Article 93] carries this punishment [life sentence] for
organizing a murder, but it is only a court that will make a decision on
this,” he said.
Scherban, a member of the Liberal Party’s executive committee and a
Verkhovna Rada deputy, was shot and killed at the Donetsk airport upon
his arrival from Moscow on November 3, 1996.
The gunmen fled the scene in a car. Scherban, his wife and a mechanic
died on the spot from gunshot wounds. The plane’s flight engineer died
in the hospital. The law enforcement ruled out political motives behind
the case.
The Luhansk Regional Court of Appeals sentenced Vadym Bolotskykh to life for doing Scherban’s killing in April 2003.
Yevhen Scherban’s son, Ruslan Scherban, said at a press conference on
April 4, 2012, that he had provided the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s
Office’s with documents indicating that Tymoshenko and Lazarenko might
have played a role in killing his father. Tymoshenko and Lazarenko
categorically dismissed the accusations.
