Investigating judge of Pechersky District Court of Kyiv Viktor Kytsiuk has started questioning Serhiy Zaitsev, who is a witness in the case against Ukrainian former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on charges of organizing the murder of MP Yevhen Scherban in 1996.
The questioning is taking place in the absence of Tymoshenko, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.
Tymoshenko, who is undergoing treatment at Ukrzaliznytsia's Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv, denied on Thursday claims by State Penitentiary Service that she had refused to participate in this hearing.
"I want to say that this information is not true... The regime got me to choose: either give up my defense in court and agree to be punished without the law or let them destroy my health. I understand all of this. I declare that I did not refuse to participate in the hearing, which will be held on February 15, 2013, the questioning of witness Zaitsev," the ex-premier said in a statement.
As reported, the first witness on the Scherban murder case, Ihor Maryinkov, was interrogated in the absence of Tymoshenko. The investigating judge took such a decision due to the fact that the court had summoned Tymoshenko to the hearing several times, but she categorically refused to come to Kyiv. A relevant document conforming the ex-premier's refusal was drawn up by the prison service. Tymoshenko's defense lawyers stated that the document was a fake.
On February 14, when the interrogation of the first witness was completed, the ex-premier's defense team stated that Tymoshenko demanded that the prison service take her to Kyiv to attend the interrogation of the second and all other witnesses on the case.
The interrogation of the second witness on the case will start at 1000 on February 15 at Kyiv Court of Appeals.
