KIEV, April 16 - RAPSI. The Pechersky District Court in Kiev has begun questioning Ukrainian businessman and politician Vitaly Haiduk as a witness in the murder of MP Yevhen Shcherban, Judge Oksana Tsarevych said on Tuesday.

Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is a suspect in that case, was notified of the hearing but refused to attend.

Haiduk was a co-owner of the Industrial Union of Donbass, which Shcherban co-founded in the 1990s. The Prosecutor General's Office previously questioned him in the case, but Tymoshenko's lawyers insisted that he be questioned in court.

The head of the Aton financial corporation and an MP, Shcherban was shot dead alongside his wife and an airport employee at Donetsk Airport in 1996.  The Prosecutor General's Office has alleged that former prime ministers Pavlo Lazarenko and Tymoshenko were behind the murder. Investigators claim that they paid $2.8 million for the assassination.

If Tymoshenko is found guilty, she may face life in prison.

In October 2011, Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of power based on a 2009 gas contract that she signed with Russia.