London newspaper claims it has proof of Kuchma's role in Gongadze's abduction (06/27/04)

London newspaper claims it has proof of Kuchma's role in Gongadze's abduction

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The London-based newspaper The Independent claimed on June 19 that it had obtained Ukrainian government documents proving that President Leonid Kuchma had a decisive role in the abduction of journalist Heorhii Gongadze and the cover-up that has followed, including the killing of a key witness.

The publication of the information returned to the political fore the murder of the 32-year-old opposition journalist after few publicized developments in recent months.

Within days Ukraine's Procurator General's Office denied that it had any evidence to support the newspaper's allegations. It responded to the article by underscoring that its investigation into the death of Gongadze, the Lviv-born founder of Ukrainska Pravda, one of Ukraine's first Internet publications, was providing results. As a press spokesman for the country's chief prosecutor noted on June 21, that the law enforcement agency was close to solving the crime.

On June 21 the press office of Procurator General Hennadii Vasyliev issued a statement explaining that it was questioning a person who is currently incarcerated for previous murders by decapitation. Press spokesman Serhii Rudenko, who would identify the suspect only as "K," said the individual had admitted to murdering the Ukrainian journalist and had described in detail how the killing, and particularly the beheading, had taken place. Mr. Rudenko did not give a motive for the murder.

The headless body of Gongadze, a vehement although relatively little known critic of President Kuchma who disappeared on September 16, 2000, was found in November 2000 in a shallow grave in a wooded area south of Kyiv. Several weeks after the discovery Mykola Melnychenko, a former member of President Kuchma's state security detail, asserted he had digital recordings of conversations between the president and close associates during which the state leader had ordered the disappearance of the journalist.

Mr. Kuchma and his subordinates have maintained that the controversial recordings were produced through digital manipulation of fragments of various unrelated conversations between the president and his aides to create the desired effects. The recordings have undergone expert examinations several times, with most analyses by Western-based firms concluding they are authentic.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which has led the call in the international community - along with the French human rights group Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) - for a full and transparent investigation into the Gongadze affair, stated on June 22 that it remains skeptical that Ukrainian law enforcement officials are dedicated to solving the case.

"The timing of this announcement, combined with President Kuchma's repeated interference in the investigation into Gongadze's murder, raises deep suspicions," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper in a statement released by the organization. She urged the Procurator General's Office to "pursue every lead in the case and to investigate fully allegations involving President Kuchma."

Earlier, an ad hoc committee of the Ukrainian Parliament, chaired by National Deputy Hryhorii Omelchenko, who is a member of the parliamentary opposition, said on June 17 that it would send a request to Procurator General Vasyliev that he open a criminal case against the Ukrainian president to investigate his involvement in the Gongadze affair.

Mr. Omelchenko said his committee had concluded that Mr. Kuchma "was the main figure behind the criminal activities aimed against Gongadze" and that he "was the organizer of the journalist's abduction." However, Mr. Omelchenko asserted that, "we have no cause to suggest that Kuchma organized the journalist's murder."

In its story The Independent asserted that it had received leaked confidential documents from Ukrainian law enforcement authorities, "who are dismayed that their investigations, which pointed to high-level involvement in the murder, have been suppressed."

The story, written by Askold Krushelnycky, a British journalist of Ukrainian origin who is affiliated also with the Prague-based, U.S.-sponsored Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, stated that the documents included an autopsy done on the body of a key witness who died while in police custody. The autopsy showed that the dead man, Ihor Honcharov, had been injected with Thiopental, a lethal drug with no medicinal value. Reports from the time of the death of Mr. Honcharov stated that, while certain oppositionist lawmakers along with Mr. Honcharov's friends and family had called for an independent autopsy of the body at the time, the body was cremated immediately after his death, leaving the matter moot.

On June 22, the same day that the Procurator General's Office announced it had a suspect in the Gongadze murder, it also announced that it was following a lead that had developed from forensic evidence obtained by the law enforcement agency, which suggested that Mr. Honcharov may have died as a result of spinal injuries from a beating administered by prison guards.

Although Mr. Honcharov was a mid-level law enforcement official, he was also the leader of a band of rogue officers who were part of a criminal organization called "The Werewolves." The group, as Mr. Honcharov later admitted, was responsible for extortion and murder. He had said it had ties to the highest levels of the state militia.

Mr. Honcharov, who died in August 2003 while in investigative detention, where he had spent more than a year while charges against him were being considered, had secretly sent a diary of his activities as a state militia official and member of The Werewolves to a Ukrainian human rights watchdog group, the Institute for Mass Information. He had noted several times before his death that he feared for his life.

On the face of the document he had asked that it be opened only upon his death. In the diary Mr. Honcharov alleged that the Ministry of Internal Affairs for whom he worked had been involved in the Gongadze abduction and murder.

The Independent's story asserted that the Ukrainian government documents in its possession show that Internal Affairs Ministry undercover police teams had carried out surveillance on Gongadze for weeks until the time of his abduction, also corroborating a charge that the journalist's wife had leveled not long after his death.

The Independent said that State Militia Gen. Oleksii Pukach had ordered Gongadze's abduction after a decision made by Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Kravchenko, a close associate of President Kuchma. Today Mr. Kravchenko is director of Ukraine's State Tax Administration.

Procurator General Vasyliev's predecessor, Oleksander Piskun, had Gen. Pukach arrested on October 23, 2003, in conjunction with the Gongadze investigation. President Kuchma dismissed the procurator general six days later on charges of abusing the power of his office for personal gain. Mr. Pukach was released from investigative detention days later.

The Independent also stated that it had witness statements collected by the Procurator General's Office during its investigation of the Gongadze affair. The newspaper asserted that as part of the government cover-up, Procurator General Vasyliev could decide to destroy the files after they became public in order to maintain the cover-up. The newspaper also noted that in their statements the witnesses had said they feared for their lives should their identities become known.

The Independent attributed statements to three investigators who noted that 25 state militia investigators were part of the undercover surveillance of Gongadze. The investigators claimed that once Gongadze had disappeared, the individuals, who had worked in five teams, were ordered to forget that surveillance activity had ever taken place.

Finally, the newspaper said that documents in its possession asserted that members of the Kisil family murdered Gongadze. It reported that a state militia investigative agent, Hryhorii Serhienko, had stated in his testimony that his colleagues, including an agent named Oleksander Muzyka, had infiltrated the powerful crime family. The infiltrators carried out the order to murder Gongadze with members of the Kisil crime family and were present when it occurred.

Kisil, the nom de guerre for the leader of the organized crime group, died last year when his bulletproofed German-made luxury automobile exploded with him inside while parked in downtown Kyiv.

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