You're reading: Kuzmin asks Obama to help investigate Shcherban murder

A group of U.S. lobbyists are blocking the interrogation of witnesses in the case on the murder of MP Yevhen Scherban in 1996, Ukrainian First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin has said in a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama. 

“In this letter, I would like to direct your attention to one of the burning issues that has complicated relations between Ukraine and the United States. This issue concerns the continuous interference of U.S. lobbyists in holding the interrogation of witnesses in the case on the murder of Ukrainian MP Yevhen Scherban. The issue concerns Pavlo Lazarenko, Petro Kyrychenko and Mykola Melnychenko, who now live in the United States and who have publicly said they would consent to give evidence in the case,” reads a letter of December, which was posted on the Web site of the Prosecutor General’s Office on Monday.

He said that the Prosecutor General’s Office had requested about 30 times that the U.S. Department of Justice assist it in organizing the interrogation of the abovementioned witnesses.

“Nonetheless, the U.S. Department of Justice is continuing to ignore requests from the Ukrainian side for the holding of interrogations,” Kuzmin said.

He said that the Prosecutor General’s Office had asked the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft for assistance in obtaining documents related to Scherban’s murder. However, according to Kuzmin, Tefft said he did not have information whether the U.S. authorities have the said documents, whereas the U.S. Department of Justice had not still responded appeals from the Ukrainian side.

“Consequently, there is an impression in Ukraine that some U.S. officials are concealing information that could aid in the search for those who ordered Yevhen Scherban’s murder,” reads the letter.

Kuzmin also said that during his questioning in Ukraine, Melnychenko had named all Ukrainian and U.S. citizens involved in this illegal plan.

“According to him, they were representatives of lobbying firm Wiley Rein, LLP, Joe Williamson and Ralph Caccia, who were hired by Tymoshenko’s husband, Oleksandr, to create her positive image in the United States and discredit Ukrainian investigators. Also among those mentioned was former U.S. Congressman Jim Slattery, who lobbied for Tymoshenko’s interests in the U.S. Congress and the State Department, using personal relationships with the head of the U.S. State Department, Mrs. Hillary Clinton. There was also lawyer Steve Bunnell, who assisted the current U.S. Assistant Attorney General,” he said.

Kuzmin also asked Obama to help “establish the truth” and “help obtain testimony from witnesses in the case on Scherban’s murder, Pavlo Lazarenko and Petro Kyrychenko, who are in the United States.”

Scherban, a member of the Liberal Party’s executive committee and a parliamentarian, was gunned down while disembarking a plane at the Donetsk airport on November 3, 1996. The killers fled the scene in a car. Scherban, his wife and a mechanic died from injuries on the spot. The plane’s flight engineer injured to his neck died later in a hospital. Law enforcement agencies ruled out political motives behind the crime.

The Luhansk Regional Court of Appeals found Vadym Bolotskykh guilty of killing Scherban and sentenced him to life in prison in April 2003.

Yevhen Scherban’s son, Ruslan Scherban, a member of the Donetsk Regional Council, said at a press conference on April 4, 2012 that he had passed documents indicating to Tymoshenko’s and Lazarenko’s possible involvement in his father’s murder to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Tymoshenko and Lazarenko have categorically denied being involved in the murder.