Evidence in "Shcherban case" enables prosecutors to charge Tymoshenko with murder
KYIV. May 27 (Interfax) - The testimony by Pyotr Kirichenko, a witness in the case involving the killing of Ukrainian parliamentarian Yevgeny Shcherban, and other information received by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office enables the prosecutors to send the case to court and charge Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with murder, Renat Kuzmin, first deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, said in an interview with Forbes Ukraine.
"Pyotr Kirichenko, [former adviser to Ukraine's former Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko], is the main witness in the case, in which Lazarenko was sentenced to ten years in prison by a U.S. court. He made a similar testimony to a Ukrainian court in the Shcherban murder case. The evidence he gave has the same force in the U.S. court as in the Ukrainian court, I have no doubts that he is telling the truth," Kuzmin said.
At the same time, he said the prosecutors do not consider Kirichenko an accomplice in the crime because the investigators have not determined any information indicating that Kirichenko was involved in that murder by prior arrangement with Lazarenko and Yulia Tymoshenko.
Kuzmin said the evidence given by Kirichenko is confirmed by other information obtained by the investigators. "The evidence enables us to send this case to court and charge Tymoshenko with killing a Ukrainian parliamentarian," Kuzmin said.
Kuzmin also said questionings of witnesses for the prosecutors cannot be expected to take place in court in the near future, adding that "the investigator has the right to do it" if such a possibility arises.
