Tymoshenko refusing to attend proceedings on MP Scherban assassination to evade criminal liability - prosecutor general
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko refused to take part in the questioning of witnesses at judicial proceedings regarding the murder of parliamentarian Yevhen Scherban in 1996 through a video link because she is trying to evade criminal liability, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said.
"Why isn't she willing to take part [in the pretrial proceedings] through a video link? Tymoshenko's only desire is to evade criminal liability. If she did not commit these crimes, as she is saying, it is the court that should say this," Pshonka told journalists in Donetsk on Wednesday.
"Isn't it clear to everyone and everywhere today that Tymoshenko and her defense team have chosen the only rule of this procedural game: to evade the hearing of the criminal case materials in court and block all video conferences that have been proposed to her?" Pshonka said.
Kyiv's Pechersky Court found Tymoshenko guilty of abuse of office in concluding a gas supply agreement with Russia in 2009 and sentenced her to seven years in prison on October 11, 2011. She has been serving her prison term at a penitentiary in Kharkiv since December 2011.
Pshonka said at a news conference on January 18 that the Prosecutor General's Office had completed the investigation into Scherban's assassination and officially notified Tymoshenko that she and former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko were suspected of organizing this murder for mercenary reasons.
A Kyiv court has questioned several witnesses on the Scherban murder case in Tymoshenko's absence.
Scherban, a member of the Liberal Party's executive committee and a Verkhovna Rada deputy, was shot and killed at the Donetsk airport upon his arrival from Moscow on November 3, 1996. The gunmen fled the scene by car. Scherban, his wife and a mechanic died on the spot from gunshot wounds. The plane's flight engineer died later in the hospital. The law enforcement ruled out political motives behind the case.
The Luhansk Regional Court of Appeals sentenced Vadym Bolotskykh to life for Scherban's murder in April 2003.
