The pre-trial investigation into the case on the murder of MP Yevhen Scherban, in which former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is a suspect, is almost completed, but the prosecutor's office is still waiting for a number of witnesses to give testimony, the chief of the main department for investigating particularly important cases at the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, Oleh Pushkar, has said.

"Ninety percent of the work has already been done. The only obstacle is that we're waiting for the execution of orders and requests for legal assistance. We're waiting for certain testimonies, which will be the finishing point. Then lawyers and victims will study the case, and we will be ready to submit it to court," he said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine newspaper published on Monday.

When asked what the verdict for Tymoshenko in this case could be like, Pushkar said: "This decision will be made by the court. I'm convinced of the quality of work of the prosecutor's office."

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 former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo 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.

In February-March 2013, three witnesses for the prosecution and one witness for the defense were interrogated in court as part of the pre-trial investigation into the Scherban murder case.

Tymoshenko did not attend either of the court hearings.