Assassination
Hetman was shot by an apparently professional killer in the elevator of his own apartment block in Kiev on April 22, 1998.
An alleged assassin, a 29-year-old Serhiy Kulev, and member of the "Bandy Kushnera" clan of the Donbas, was only found in 2002. He was later sentenced to life imprisonment without bond in April 2003. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has claimed that the assassination was ordered and paid for by Pavlo Lazarenko, a former Ukrainian Prime Minister. Lazarenko denies this.
Despite the Luhansk City Court's verdict, the case remains far from being certain. In early August 2005, the media reported that the convict filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine on grounds that he had been forced to make a false confession. His lawyer subsequently made a public statement that the case was entirely fabricated.
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