You're reading: Pshonka meets with foreign diplomats

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka has met with representatives of foreign diplomatic missions to Ukraine, including diplomats from Austria, Bulgaria, Russia, Greece, Latvia, Poland, France, the UK, Denmark, the United States, Estonia, Italy, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Spain, Germany, Canada, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and the EU.

The press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine said
on Sunday, January 20, Ukrainian Health Minister Raisa Bohatyriova and a
representative of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine, Oleksandr
Lisitskov, also participated in the meeting.

Pshonka told the foreign diplomats that on January 18, 2013 jailed
former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko received a document
notifying her of being suspected of embezzlement of assets that did not
belong to her in especially big amount via abuse of power upon
preliminary collusion with a group of people, and of being suspected of
organizing and ordering the murder of parliamentarian Yevhen Scherban in
1996 upon preliminary collusion with former First Vice Premier of
Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko.

The prosecutor general stressed that the legislation and the
ex-premier’s right to defense were not violated during the procedure of
passing the document to convict Tymoshenko.

He added that the criminal case will be sent to court as soon as all legal proceedings are completed.

“There is no political background here, there are materials of the
investigation and the defense team’s arguments, and the court will take a
decision on the case after considering them,” Pshonka said.

In turn, Bohatyriova informed the participants of the meeting about Tymoshenko’s health condition.

She said that the state of health allows the patient being involved in investigatory proceedings.

Pshonka added that the new Criminal Procedure Code has significantly extended the defense team’s rights.