KIEV, September 21 - RAPSI. Ukraine's First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin is ready to defend in a London court the voracity of his statements that former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was involved in the murder of parliamentarian Yevgeny Scherban in 1996.

"I am ready to take part in the trial personally," the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office quoted him as saying.

On Monday, Serhiy Vlasenko, Tymoshenko's attorney, said a defamation lawsuit against Kuzmin was filed last week with a London court.
In March 2012, Kuzmin told the BBC that a dozen criminal cases against Tymoshenko were being investigated, including accusations as to her alleged involvement in Shcherban's murder.

He said the Prosecutor General's Office has reliable information regarding payments made to contract killers from the accounts of companies controlled by Tymoshenko and Pavlo Lazarenko, a former prime minister who is serving a sentence in the United States for money laundering.
Shcherban, an MP and the head of the Anton financial corporation, 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 submitted documents to investigators regarding Tymoshenko's alleged involvement in his father's murder. She is presently a witness in the Shcherban case, but according to Kuzmin, the office has sufficient grounds to bring charges against her.

In October 2011, Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of power based on a 2009 gas contract she signed with Russia. She is serving her sentence in a Kharkiv women's prison. She has been receiving treatment at a Kharkiv hospital since May 2012. She was diagnosed with a spinal disc herniation.

In late March, a second case bringing further charges against Tymoshenko was filed with Kharkiv's Kievsky District Court. The case deals with her activity at United Energy Systems. She is accused of misappropriation of funds.