Shcherban killers plotted assassination attempt against Akhmetov - media

21.02.2013 14:18

Ukrinform

KYIV, February 21 /UKRINFORM/. The materials of a new investigation into the Yevhen Shcherban case have many details on other crimes of the Yevhen Kushnir gang, whose members in 2003 were formally found guilty of murdering the MP. In particular, they prepared an attempt on the life of Rinat Akhmetov.

This was reported by the Forbes, which yet failed to learn for certain whether the owner of SCM Corporation Rinat Akhmetov is implied.

"According to Riabin (Anatoliy Riabin - one of the Kushnir gang leaders) and Akulov, he (the direct perpetrator of the Shcherban murder - Vadym Bolotskykh) knew that an explosive device was planted in a car to kill Akhmetov. When the latter was driving past the car, the device exploded, but Akhmetov was not hurt," a verdict of the Appeal Court of Luhansk dated April 17, 2003, reads.

The verdict on the gang members is contained in one of the 52 volumes of the investigation, where the name of Akhmetov is mentioned twice, in particular, in the 6th episode of the court verdict, which includes evidence of the murder of Akhat Brahin (also known as Alik Hrek) during the explosion at the stadium Shakhtar on October 15, 1995. It reads that, in connection with the murder of Brahin, president of FC Shakhtar, the police of Israel provided legal aid and questioned Boris Farfel as a witness. During the interrogation, he said that for many years he was familiar with Yevhen Kushnir, yet when Kushnir was a jeweler in Donetsk, and the latter visited Farfel in Israel.

According to Farfel, Kushnir wanted to get $300,000 allegedly left for him by the will of Cherevatenko. "He (Farfel) refused to give them the money. Then they proposed participation in a 'war' against Rinat Akhmetov and wanted to get from him money for this 'war'. "In other words, they extorted money to kill Rinat and his team and return to Donetsk as the winners," the court verdict reads.

The name of businessman Rinat Akhmetov was also mentioned in the new Shcherban case. January 22, 2013, ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whom prosecutors suspect of arranging the murder of Yevhen Shcherban, said that the death of Shcherban was in the interests of Akhmetov, as he, according to Tymoshenko, had managed to establish control over many assets of businessman Shcherban.