KIEV, July 1 – Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko on Wednesday asked Parliament to lift immunity from Viktor Lozynskiy, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s group, to investigate his involvement into a recent murder in the Kirovohrad region.

By another order, Medvedko reshuffled top prosecutors at the Prosecutor General’s Office, appointing Vitaliy Shchotkin in charge of the department that will now supervise the investigation of the murder, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

The case is watched closely as the investigation may have major political repercussions for Tymoshenko – and perhaps some other officials - just ahead of the next presidential election.

The investigation is focusing on the death of Valeriy Oliynyk, 55, on June 16 following his encounter of Lozynskiy and two of his friends. Lozynskiy admitted there was an encounter, but said the company fought Oliynyk in self-defense.

Renat Kuzmin, a top prosecutor who has been supervising the investigation through Wednesday, said earlier this week that Lozynskiy’s account of the murder simply “does not hold water.”

The latest reshuffle at the Prosecutor General’s Office that had been ordered by Medvedko on Wednesday replaced Kuzmin with Shchotkin in charge of the department that will investigate the crime.

Tymoshenko was silent on the murder for a week before issuing a statement last week calling for the investigation. She also suggested her group would support a motion to lift Lozynskiy’s immunity to make the investigation transparent.

Lozynskiy, a lawmaker from the Tymoshenko Bloc, owns hunting ground in the Kirovohrad region where the murder had taken place.

Local residents said Lozynskiy and his friends, a local prosecutor and a local police chief, had chased Oliynyk “as a rabbit” before shooting him to death. They said Oliynyk lived a quiet life in the Hrushky village.

But Lozynskiy said the group acted in self-defense, although his account of the incident raised many questions.

The lawmaker said Oliynyk died two hours after been taken to a local hospital, but forensic examination had later showed Oliynyk had died at the field of numerous shooting wounds, according to people familiar with the investigation.

The local residents also said Lozynskiy, known as “the boss,” had similar encounters with other local people in the past, threatening to shoot if they come close to his hunting ground.

Lozynskiy, as a lawmaker, enjoys immunity from prosecution. He has been regarded as a witness in the investigation.

But two of Lozynskiy’s friends, Holovanivskiy district prosecutor Yevhen Horbenko and Holovanivskiy district police chief Mykhaylo Kovalskiy, were suspended and detained by the investigators for the time of the investigation.

Lozynskiy pledged to cooperate with the investigators, but Kuzmin said the lawmaker had already ignored investigators’ request to show up for questioning on June 28.

Lozynskiy can be stripped of immunity if Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko submits an official request to Parliament and it is approved by at least 226 lawmakers in the 450-seat legislature. (nr/ez)