Ex-premier Masol claims Yanukovych was involved in Scherban's murder, says interviewer
Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Vitaliy Masol claims that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was involved in the murder of MP Yevhen Scherban in 1996.
A relevant excerpt from his interview, which was not included in the publication in the Krayina magazine, was posted by journalist Alina Stryzhak on her Facebook page.
"I, for one, think that Yanukovych killed Scherban. Removed him from his path. This is Donetsk, after all," Masol said.
"I knew Scherban. He came to me when I was prime minister. He asked to be my non-staff adviser. I even gave him a pass card. I liked him for his sound judgments. And then they killed Scherban. The director of the Ampilov mine, for whom I had three houses built, told me how this was done," the ex-premier said.
Masol said he was also sure that MP Yevhen Kushnariov, who died in 2007 from a gunshot wound when he was hunting, was killed not by accident. In addition, he believes that former president of Ukraine Viktor Yuschenko was involved in the death of former governor of the National Bank Vadym Hetman in 1998.
"They removed Kushnariov. If he had not been removed, he would be president. [Transport Minister Heorhiy] Kirpa was killed, as well as [former Interior Minister Yuriy] Kravchenko. Vadym Hetman, by the way, was my neighbor in Koncha (Koncha-Zaspa on the outskirts of Kyiv). Yuschenko killed him," Stryzhak quoted Masol as saying.
Stryzhak confirmed to Interfax-Ukraine the authenticity of the interview, adding that she had an audio recording of it.
Masol held the post of prime minister of Ukraine from June 16, 1994 until March 6, 1995 He was also chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1987-1990.
As reported, Yevhen Scherban, a member of the Liberal Party's executive committee and a Verkhovna Rada deputy, was shot dead at the Donetsk airport on 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. Law enforcement officers ruled out there being political motives behind the case.
In April 2003, the Court of Appeals of Luhansk region sentenced Vadym Bolotskykh to life imprisonment for Scherban's murder.
Scherban's son, Ruslan Scherban, a member of Donetsk Regional Council, said at a press conference on April 4, 2012 that he had passed to the Prosecutor General's Office documents indicating Tymoshenko's and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko's possible involvement in his father's murder.
Tymoshenko and Lazarenko have categorically denied being involved in the murder.
On January 18, 2013, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said at a briefing that the Prosecutor General's Office had finished its investigation into the criminal case on the murder of MP Scherban and that Tymoshenko had been notified of being suspected of having organized the crime, along with Lazarenko. The article of the Criminal Code under which the notification was handed envisages life imprisonment. According to Pshonka, Tymoshenko and Lazarenko paid $2.8 million for Scherban to be killed.
Pechersky District Court of Kyiv is currently holding questioning of witnesses as part of the pre-trial investigation into the Scherban murder case. Tymoshenko did not attend either of the court hearings.
