Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) has been already questioned in the criminal case on his involvement in the murder of MP Yevhen Scherban, Deputy Prosecutor General Liliya Frolova said in an interview with the Ukrainian Pravda online newspaper.
Asked is there was difference between Kuchma’s testimony and that which he gave earlier – that he knows nothing about the conflict of ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko and Scherban – Frolova said: “I think that the essence of this testimony will be known directly during the court hearings.”
As reported, on January 24, 2013 during the Davos forum Kuchma said that there were no grounds to open a criminal case against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on her involvement in the murder of businessman Yevhen Scherban during his presidency (until the beginning of 2005).
“This is a matter for the prosecutor’s office. [Former Prosecutor General Mykhailo] Potebenko reported that at that time there were no grounds to open a case. That’s all,” he said.
On April 4, 2012 Scherban’s son, Ruslan Scherban, a member of the Donetsk Regional Council, reported 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.
On August 9, 2012, First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin said that the Prosecutor General’s Office possessed enough evidence to charge Tymoshenko with complicity in the 1996 murder of MP Yevhen Scherban.
Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, in turn, said at a briefing on January 18 that the Prosecutor General’s Office had finished its investigation into the criminal case on the murder of MP Scherban, who was shot dead in 1996, and that Tymoshenko had been notified of being suspected of having organized the crime, along with Lazarenko.
Tymoshenko and Lazarenko have categorically denied being involved in the murder.
On January 23, Pshonka said that the allegations about Tymoshenko’s involvement in the murder of MP Scherban were announced back in 2001, but Tymoshenko had been avoiding her trial.
“Back in 2001, Lazarenko’s advisor said that Tymoshenko was involved in financing and organizing the murder of Scherban. Therefore this information is not new and was made public 12 years ago. However, Tymoshenko has been evading responsibility in every possible way. She has been hiding behind official posts, an MP’s mandate, political status, etc.,” Pshonka said.
According to the prosecutor general, law enforcers had questions for Tymoshenko starting from the late 1990s.
“But she has never answered them in any of the criminal cases against her, which have been numerous over the past 15 years,” he said.
On October 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for overstepping her authority when signing 2009 gas contracts with Russia. She has served her sentence in Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv since late December 2011. The ex-premier is currently undergoing treatment at a Kharkiv-based hospital.
