KIEV, October 3 (Itar-Tass) — First Deputy Ukrainian Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin has explained the situation around Ukrainian ex-prime minister Yulia Timoshenko in an open letter addressed to the U.S. Congress, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Prosecutor's General Office Margarita Velkova told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
In the letter Kuzmin drew attention to the recent accusations against Timoshenko who is suspected of being involved in the murder of four. Kuzmin underlined that he was prepared to turn over the documents of the investigation and the incriminating evidence against Timoshenko to the U.S. side to study.
The Ukrainian First deputy prosecutor's address to the U.S. Congress came in the wake of a resolution adopted by the U.S. Congress last week in which the U.S. side asked the Ukrainian authorities to release Timoshenko and other political prisoners.
The situation around Timoshenko, which is in the focus of the U.S. resolution, was not correctly interpreted by a number of US politicians, Kuzmin said in the open letter. The reason of their unintentional error was lack of information and a biased approach provoked by the interested party - Timoshenko herself, who misled the U.S. Congress, providing intentionally selected, biased information based on emotions, rather than facts, Kuzmin said in the letter.
The investigation is yet establishing the truth in Timoshenko's case, while a demand voiced by the U.S. Senate to drop efforts to establish the truth in the case of the murder of four aroused surprise and disappointed many in the Ukrainian society, Kuzmin said. Do the U. S.authorities really want to prevent finding out the truth by means of threats and ultimatums and acting from the position of force?" Kuzmin wondered.
In 2011-2012 the Ukrainian Prosecutor's General appealed to the U.S. Justice and the U.S. State Department more than twenty times, asking to help them interrogate Ukrainian ex-prime minister Pavel Lazarenko who said he was ready to testify to the Ukrainian investigators. However, all of our appeals went unanswered, Kuzmin said, adding they were even denied a possibility of getting an important evidence about the murders committed in Ukraine.
Might the U.S. resolution be an answer to Ukraine's efforts to find the assassin of an influential politician, his wife and two more innocent people? Might this resolution mean that a person who has once reached a high position in power is inaccessible for justice bodies? Kuzmin stressed in the letter.
The dramatic character of the situation artificially created by Timoshenko's supporters should not overshadow the real facts confirmed by documents and should not let us agree to a compromise with crime, Kuzmin stressed. “I am confident that you were devoid of sufficient information proving that Timoshenko has done a severe, possibly irreparable damage to Ukraine, which told on the moral condition of the entire nation,” Kuzmin said.
He declared he was ready to speak at the U.S. Congress and submit all the necessary documents on the case and tell the truth about Timoshenko's case to the US mass media. " I am confident that dropping a criminal case against Timoshenko in which she is charged for four murders would be a sin against the Lord and the people, another crime because it would show to the young generation that a politician, who once rose to power, can commit crimes and murders, going unpunished," Kuzmin stressed.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor's General suspects ex-prime minister Yulia Timoshenko and her predecessor in the prime minister's post Pavel Lazarenko of being involved in the murder of deputy of the former Ukrainian parliament Yevhen Shcherban, his wife and two more people at Donetsk airport in November 1996.