KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian prosecutors are to investigate whether former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, jailed for abuse of power, was involved in the murder of a member of parliament, news agency Unian quoted a senior prosecutor yesterday as saying.
Tymoshenko’s spokeswoman Natalya Lisova dismissed the allegation, saying: “This is absurd. The government desire to get rid of political opposition has crossed all limits.”
The investigation is into the 1996 contract killing of deputy Yevhen Shcherban, private agency Unian quoted Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin as saying. Shcherban was shot in an airport.
Kuzmin was quoted as saying prosecutors had evidence that Tymoshenko could be involved in the crime, along with Pavlo Lazarenko, who was prime minister at the time and has since been jailed in the United Staates for fraud and money laundering.
“We have a transcript of a witness being questioned in the United States where the witness states directly that the murder of Shcherban was paid for from Lazarenko and Tymoshenko’s accounts,” Kuzmin was quoted as saying.
“We have the documents and want to check them.”
Aides to Lazarenko have been quoted in Ukrainian media as saying he denies any involvement with the murder.
This month, a district court in Kiev found Tymoshenko guilty of abusing her power in forcing through a 2009 gas deal with Russia and sentenced her to seven years in prison, a verdict she has already appealed against.
