Batkivschyna says Melnychenko's statement written under dictation of Yanukovych administration

A statement made by former State Guard Department Major Mykola Melnychenko regarding the involvement of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the murder of MP Yevhen Scherban in 1996 has been prepared at the request of the administration of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, the Batkivschyna Party said in a statement on Saturday.

"The first cases against Yulia Tymoshenko were trumped up in the building of the administration of President [Leonid] Kuchma on Bankova Street, in the office of [incumbent President Viktor] Yanukovych. The only possible information that Melnychenko may have is Kuchma's orders on repression against our leader. In 2003, there was a court hearing in Luhansk in the case concerning the murder of Yevhen Scherban. Even the court controlled by Kuchma failed to find any slightest evidence of Yulia Tymoshenko's involvement in this crime. It could not find it, because it does not exist," reads the statement.

The party also claimed that Melnychenko had proposed testifying in favor of Tymoshenko for a fee.

As reported, 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 their involvement in the murder.