A pre-trial investigation into the contract killing of MP Yevhen Scherban in 1996, which former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is suspected of organizing, has most likely not been completed, the ex-premier's lawyer, Oleksandr Plakhotniuk, has said.
“Taking into account the information that was announced yesterday at a
press conference by [head of the main department for investigating
particularly important cases at the Prosecutor General’s Office Andriy]
Kurys, it can be concluded that the pre-trial investigation has not yet
been completed, because it’s impossible to carry out investigatory
measures after the pre-trial investigation, and if the Prosecutor
General’s Office is planning to conduct any investigatory measures, then
the pre-trial investigation, in fact, should not be completed,” he told
Interfax-Ukraine.
However, he said that this information was contrary to a statement by
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka that all investigatory
measures and the pre-trial investigation had been finished.
Plakhotniuk also said that perhaps investigators, before passing a
notification to Tymoshenko about the charges, had already conducted a
number of investigations. After Tymoshenko received the document, she
can be questioned at her request, he added.
“I think that they had such a possibility [to conduct
investigations], and taking into account the statements that were made,
we can assume that, in their opinion, the main part of investigations
has already been conducted. And all that could be done has already been
done,” he said.
