A pre-trial investigation into the contract killing of MP Yevhen Scherban in 1996, which former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is suspected of organizing, has most likely not been completed, the ex-premier's lawyer, Oleksandr Plakhotniuk, has said.

"Taking into account the information that was announced yesterday at a press conference by [head of the main department for investigating particularly important cases at the Prosecutor General's Office Andriy] Kurys, it can be concluded that the pre-trial investigation has not yet been completed, because it's impossible to carry out investigatory measures after the pre-trial investigation, and if the Prosecutor General's Office is planning to conduct any investigatory measures, then the pre-trial investigation, in fact, should not be completed," he told Interfax-Ukraine.

However, he said that this information was contrary to a statement by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka that all investigatory measures and the pre-trial investigation had been finished.

Plakhotniuk also said that perhaps investigators, before passing a notification to Tymoshenko about the charges, had already conducted a number of investigations. After Tymoshenko received the document, she can be questioned at her request, he added.

"I think that they had such a possibility [to conduct investigations], and taking into account the statements that were made, we can assume that, in their opinion, the main part of investigations has already been conducted. And all that could be done has already been done," he said.