KIEV, May 13 (RAPSI, Sofia Musich) - Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office has ceased the investigation of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was believed to have contracted the murder of businessman and MP Yevhen Shcherban, her lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko said.

In his opinion, the decision is fresh evidence that there is no such thing as "the Shcherban case," as Tymoshenko's lawyers had always claimed. However, Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office later announced that the investigation was still active, and was ceased only temporarily due to changes in the Criminal Code.

Shcherban, the chief of the Aton financial corporation and a deputy of the Supreme Rada, was shot dead at Donetsk Airport in November 1996. His wife and an airport employee were also killed.

The Prosecutor General's Office claimed that the murder was ordered by two former Ukrainian prime ministers, Tymoshenko and Pavlo Lazarenko. According to the investigators, Shcherban stood in the way of making United Energy Systems of Ukraine, which Tymoshenko headed at the time, the monopoly distributor of gas in the Donetsk Region.

The investigators claimed that Tymoshenko and Lazarenko paid $2.8 million for Shcherban's murder. If Tymoshenko were found guilty as charged, she could have been sentenced to life in prison.

Her lawyers always argued that she is not involved in the murder in any way.

The key prosecution witness, Petro Kirichenko, an associate of Tymoshenko who now resides in the United States under a witness protection program, was scheduled to testify in the Shcherban case on May 15.