KIEV, September 17 - RAPSI. Nikolai Melnichenko, former bodyguard of ex-Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, has stated that he has audio material which could prove the involvement of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a high-profile assassination.

Melnichenko has submitted a statement regarding this evidence to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office and has posted about it on his Facebook page.

He claims he has audio recordings related to the assassination of MP and head of the Aton financial corporation Yevheny Shcherban, who was shot dead along with his wife and airport staff at Donetsk airport in 1996.

"Pavel Lazarenko (former Ukrainian prime minister, currently serving a prison sentence in the United States for money laundering) is named as the person who ordered the murder. Kushnir, a criminal kingpin, is the organizer, while Pyotr Kirichenko, Lazarenko's business partner, and Yulia Tymoshenko paid for the execution of the crime," Melnichenko's statement reads.

Melnichenko became widely known after he recorded a person that sounded like Kuchma giving orders in the presidential office to "settle affairs" with journalist Georgy Gongadze, whose beheaded body was later found in the Kiev Region in autumn 2000.

As a result of the audio recording, the former president was accused of involvement in the journalist's assassination. However, the court deemed that the case against Kuchma was illegal, as the recording in his office was taken without permission.

Tymoshenko is currently involved in the Shcherban case as a witness. First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin has said previously that she may be charged with involvement in Shcherban's assassination by the end of September.

In early 2002, eight individuals were arrested on suspicion of the MP's assassination. All eight were found guilty and three were sentenced to life imprisonment.