Tymoshenko rejects murder charge as ‘absurd’
She said they were “absurd” and clearly politically driven.
The jailing last October of Tymoshenko, the main opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich, has soured Ukraine’s ties with the EU and the US, which say the case smacks of “selective” justice.
But despite Western pressure for her release, Ukrainian prosecutors have additionally accused her of tax evasion and now say they are investigating her possible involvement in the 1996 killing of Yevhen Shcherban, one of the most sensational crimes of post-Soviet Ukraine. Shcherban, a powerful businessman and politician, died in a hail of bullets as he emerged from a plane in the eastern city of Donetsk. The attackers, disguised as airport mechanics, also killed his wife and several bystanders. His death followed several murders in Donetsk, including a football stadium bombing that killed the owner of Shakhtar Donetsk club, and led to a realignment of political and business alliances in the key steel- and coal-producing region.
Both Tymoshenko and Yanukovich were already big players in a turbulent region which seethed with intrigue and where fortunes were made and lost in murky dealings ranging from sales of state assets to protection rackets, extortion and theft.
Tymoshenko was head of the gas trader Unified Energy Systems, which was a major supplier of the fuel in Ukraine, while he was deputy governor of Donetsk and a close ally of other powerful regional leaders.
“Linking me to the Shcherban case is absurd,” Tymoshenko said in the statement. “I believe that people well understand how poorly this case holds together, who benefits from it and how absurd it is.”
State prosecutors say they have evidence Tymoshenko could be involved in the case, along with Pavlo Lazarenko, who was prime minister at the time and who has since been jailed in the US for fraud and money laundering.
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