KIEV, December 10 – RAPSI. Ukrainian First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin believes that the U.S. Department of Justice is trying to derail the case of Ukrainian MP and businessman Yevgeny Shcherban, who was killed in 1996, he wrote in an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, which was published on Monday.

An MP and the head of the Anton financial corporation, Shcherban was shot dead at the Donetsk airport in November 1996. His wife and an airport employee were also killed.

Shcherban's son Ruslan reported in early April that he had filed documents with the investigators on the alleged involvement of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the murder. She is presently a witness in the case. However, according to Kuzmin, the office has grounds to bring charges against her.

The former prime minister's lawyers have denied her involvement in the crime.

The first deputy prosecutor general wrote that there is a strong lobby in the United States that seeks to force Kiev to stop the investigation into the murder, as well as into other crimes of which Tymoshenko has been accused. In the open letter to Obama, Kuzmin added that the United States is postponing the interrogation of witnesses in the murder case, such as Pavel Lazarenko, Pyotr Kirichenko and Mykola Melnichenko, who permanently reside in the United States and have already agreed to testify.

He stressed that the U.S. Department of Justice has ignored Ukraine’s applications to hold the interrogations.

Tymoshenko has been receiving treatment at a Kharkiv hospital since May 2012. She was diagnosed with a spinal disc herniation.

In October 2011, Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of power in signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She is serving her sentence in a Kharkiv women's prison. Her lawyers have denied her involvement in the crime.

In early 2002, eight individuals were arrested on suspicion of taking part in Shcherban's assassination.

All eight were found guilty and three were sentenced to life imprisonment.