Timoshenko has 72 hrs to select lawyers in MP murder case - prosecutor

09:33, 22 January 2013

KIEV. January 22. KAZINFORM The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said it was hopeful that former Prime Minister and opposition Batkivshchina party leader Yulia Timoshenko would make up its mind on Thursday, January 24, about the lawyers who will defend her in the MP Yevgeny Shcherban murder case.

"Timoshenko has not made up her mind yet. She has 72 hours. We expect Yulia Vladimirovna to choose the lawyers on Thursday," Andrei Kurys, head of the department of grave cases in the Prosecutor General's Office, said on Monday, January 21, Itar-Tass informed.

He noted that Timoshenko may be interrogated in the Shcherban murder case, if she wishes so. "Giving testimony is the right of a suspect. If she says so, she will be interrogated," Kurys said.

On January 18, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office provided Timoshenko with notice informing her that she is suspected of involvement in the killing of MP Shcherban.

Prosecutor General Pshonka said Timoshenko might be sentenced to life imprisonment in this case. "

"Pre-trial investigation materials showing that Timoshenko made out a contract for that murder together with Lazarenko have been gathered," Pshonka said.

According to Pshonka, Timoshenko and Lazarenko paid 2.8 million U.S. dollars for Shcherban's assassination.

He said the criminal case over the debts of the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, which was used to be headed by Timosehnko, to the Russian Defence Ministry and the Shcherban case had been combined into one.

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