Region: Ex-president linked to journalist's murder

Staff Report

From the Kyiv Post

Prosecutors charged former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma with involvement in the gruesome 2000 murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, a move greeted by shock and skepticism among critics who have long questioned whether top officials would be punished for alleged involvement in the sensational crime.

Kuchma, 72, was charged March 24 with exceeding his authority and abuse of power, actions that allegedly led to the journalist's death. He denied the charges.

A spokesman for the prosecutor's office and a lawyer for Gongadze's widow, Myroslava, said the statute of limitations on the charge expired last September, meaning that even if convicted, he may not face jail time.

"If found guilty by a court ruling, Kuchma will be convicted but may not face any punishment," said Yuriy Boychenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's general prosecutor's office.

But if the court decides not to apply the statute of limitations and finds Kuchma guilty of charges that he currently faces, the ex-leader could spend up to 12 years in prison.

Boychenko also said that further charges, possibly even murder, could be added.

Prosecutors announced March 22 they had opened a case into Kuchma's involvement in independent Ukraine's most notorious crime, sparking life into a decade-long investigation that critics say has avoided evidence leading to Kuchma.

Gongadze's widow welcomed the surprise news but raised concerns that Kuchma is accused of abuse of power rather than the more serious charge of murder. This charge appears to have outrun its 10-year statute of limitations.

"The opening of this case is like an earthquake in Ukraine," Myroslava Gongadze said. "I am just worried that from a formal standpoint, Kuchma was accused of abuse of power, which led to the murder. He should be accused directly of murder and ordering the murder."

Theories have swirled about why the investigation turned to the 72-year-old former leader. Political analysts said the charges could be an attempt to absolve Kuchma of guilt, or to blunt Western criticism that criminal probes into opposition figures are politically motivated.

Prosecutors, however, said they are determined to crack the case.

Gongadze, a muckraking journalist and Kuchma critic who founded the Ukrainska Pravda news website, disappeared Sept. 16, 2000. His headless body was found in woodlands outside Kyiv two months later.

The case exploded into a larger scandal at the end of that year, when opposition lawmaker Oleksandr Moroz made public tapes allegedly made by former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko. On these recordings, a voice that sounds like Kuchma's talks about having Gongadze kidnapped by Chechens and orders subordinates to "take care of him."

These tapes have never been authenticated conclusively, but the first deputy prosecutor general, Renat Kuzmin, said they would be considered "material evidence" in the case against Kuchma.

Three police officers are currently in jail for the murder, and a former police general, Oleksiy Pukach, is awaiting trial for the killing.

Prosecutors in September named late former Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko as the official who ordered a subordinate to slay Gongadze, in a move critics said looked like an attempt to shield other officials of blame. Kravchenko died in 2005, shortly before he was due to give evidence to prosecutors. Investigators called his death a suicide.

Prosecutors have not revealed what evidence they hold against Kuchma, but the fact the Melnychenko tapes will be used as evidence marks a watershed. The hundreds of hours of recordings - allegedly made on a device stuffed behind a sofa in the president's office - could also bring pressure on other current and former officials.

It could also lead to further investigations into other apparent crimes that are discussed on the tapes by voices that sound like Kuchma and other top officials, including pressuring judges, bribery and fixing elections. Kuchma and former chief of staff Volodymyr Lytvyn - now Parliament speaker - were allegedly caught on tape in 2000 plotting ways to silence Gongadze. Kuchma and Lytvyn have vehemently denied the authenticity of the tapes, but leaked testimony by murder suspect Pukach also allegedly implicates the pair.

Hennadiy Moskal, a former police general and now an opposition lawmaker, said prosecutors would need more evidence than the tapes if they wanted to tie Kuchma to the crime.

"[As] Kravchenko is no longer alive, there is no chance of linking Kuchma to the Gongadze murder, because what Kuchma said about Gongadze on the tapes could have been a pure emotional outburst," he said.

The writers can be reached at news@praguepost.com