Scherban case investigation resumes - Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office
KYIV. May 13 (Interfax) - An inquiry into the 1996 murder of deputy Yevhen Scherban, of which ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is suspected of organizing, has resumed. The inquiry was suspended for a period regulated by laws to fulfill international legal orders.
"A resolution that suspended the investigation was issued on April 26. A resolution of May 13 resumed the inquiry," a source at the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office told Interfax on Monday.
"Ukrainian laws - the Criminal Procedure Code - strictly regulate investigation periods in criminal cases. Therefore, lawmakers envisaged the possibility of a suspended investigation pursuant to Article 280 of the Criminal Procedure Code. For instance, that is done when international legal cooperation procedures need to be accomplished," he said.
International legal orders were sent to several countries in the course of the Scherban case investigation, the source stressed.
"That is why the detective has suspended investigative procedures," he said.
The detective resumed the inquiry on May 13 due to the upcoming investigative procedures, he said.
Suspension of the Scherban case investigation was purely technical and had no effect on the essence of the inquiry. The Prosecutor General's Office suspended the inquiry in order to not waste time assigned by the Criminal Procedure Code for investigative procedures while international legal orders were being fulfilled.
Tymoshenko's lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko told reporters earlier in the day that the Prosecutor General's Office had stopped investigating the Scherban case.
