Government announces arrests in case of Gongadze murder (03/06/05)

Government announces arrests in case of Gongadze murder

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko on March 1 announced a breakthrough in the case of Heorhii Gongadze's disappearance, confirming that Ukrainian police officers murdered him in September 2000 and former President Leonid Kuchma suppressed any investigation.

"The former government not only lacked the political will to solve the case," Mr. Yushchenko said. "There wasn't merely a deficit of desire. The government gave cover to the murderers. The goal was to never solve the case."

Additionally, authorities also arrested two police officers for their direct role in Mr. Gongadze's murder, said Sviatoslav Piskun, the procurator general of Ukraine. A third officer is free but not allowed to leave Kyiv, and the fourth, Gen. Oleksii Pukach, has fled abroad, he said.

With the arrests, Mr. Yushchenko has accomplished in one month what his predecessor neglected to do in four and a half years.

Resolving the Gongadze murder was a direct mandate from Mr. Yushchenko following his election, Mr. Piskun said. The public's trust in the new administration depended on it, he noted.

"Viktor Andriyovych stated that the resolution of this crime is a matter of honor," Mr. Piskun said. "The president's task has been accomplished. The matter is solved. The perpetrators of this horrible crime are arrested."

The suspects were arrested on a solid base of evidence that proves the two men "directly executed the murders," Mr. Piskun said.

At a March 2 press conference, Mr. Piskun offered the first official description of how Mr. Gongadze was murdered.

On the night of September 16, 2000, Mr. Gongadze left the apartment of his Ukrayinska Pravda colleague Olena Prytula and approached a parked car strategically placed by the murderers who had been stalking him. Thinking it was a taxi cab, Mr. Gongadze sat in the passenger seat.

The driver then told him the seat was broken, and he should sit in the back seat instead, Mr. Piskun said. Once Mr. Gongadze switched his place, three police officers jumped in the back seat. The assailants drove beyond Kyiv, in the direction of the town of Bila Tserkva.

"On the road, they beat him," Mr. Piskun said. "Then they brought him to their place, tied his hands, killed him, poured gasoline on his body and set it on fire."

Mr. Piskun later added that Gongadze's murderers had choked him to death.

To commit the crime, the officers used a sports jeep belonging to the department, which the Procurator General's Office had parked in its lot for journalists to view.

Two months after the murder, Mr. Gongadze's headless body was found in the Tarascha forest outside the city.

Many questions still remain unanswered. When asked about the murderers' motives, Mr. Piskun replied curtly, "Later."

Asked whether the murder was a political order, Mr. Piskun said, "It is difficult to say now. This is being investigated as well."

Mr. Piskun declined to say whether authorities have retrieved Mr. Gongadze's head, indicating that he would address that also on a future occasion.

Divers are currently searching for evidence, Mr. Yushchenko said, and there are hints as to the whereabouts of Mr. Gongadze's head.

As to the names of those detained, all Mr. Piskun offered was that they were all Kyiv residents. He declined to reveal the names because that would violate the law, adding, "This is a serious matter, for which there will be a serious court."

They are all leaders in the criminal reconnaissance administration of the police force, he said.

Authorities are currently engaged in an international search for Mr. Pukach, the former head of the external supervision department of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mr. Piskun said.

What remains to be seen is how many more government officials will be charged in Mr. Gongadze's murder and how far up the chain of command the investigation will reach.

"My top goal is to get to the main point: who organized and ordered the murder?" President Yushchenko said.

President Kuchma's former security guard, Mykola Melnychenko, said he's sure the main orders to murder came from Mr. Kuchma, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn, former Internal Affairs Minister Yurii Kravchenko and Leonid Derkach, the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine.

Mr. Kuchma has long denied any involvement with Mr. Gongadze's disappearance, despite audio recordings made by Mr. Melnychenko that reveal a man with a voice similar to Mr. Kuchma's giving orders to kill Mr. Gongadze.

The former president has claimed the recordings are doctored.

Mr. Piskun said he was sure the policemen received orders to murder, but will reveal those suspects only when they are implicated. When asked whether it was known who gave the policemen their orders, he replied, "There is such an individual."

As to whether he will take measures against former President Kuchma, Mr. Piskun said, "I am sure that we will take all possible and necessary actions for the matter at hand."

He urged separating the Gongadze investigation from politics, since it must come before a court that will ultimately have the final word.

Mr. Kravchenko will testify on March 4 before the procurator general, Mr. Piskun said.

Meanwhile, the slain journalist's mother, Lesia Gongadze, said she is suing the Procurator General's Office for failing to act in July 2000, when Mr. Gongadze wrote a detailed letter indicating that he was being stalked and needed protection.

Ms. Gongadze also has proof that the office received her son's letter.

"I will not seek the murderers," Ms. Gongadze told 1+1 television news, holding the documents in her hand." I will sue the Office of the Procurator General, which should be severely punished for humiliating me and all the people of Ukraine for four and a half years now."

At the time of Mr. Gongadze's request for protection, Mykhailo Potebenko was the procurator general, Mr. Piskun said at his press conference. Therefore, Ms. Gongadze's conflict is not with him, but with Mr. Potebenko.

After Mr. Piskun's press conference, Mr. Potebenko appeared on national television and said he doesn't know who committed the murders. He also stated that, had he known, he would have arrested the assailants.

He said he has no guilty role in Mr. Gongadze's murder.

Mr. Piskun was Ukraine's top prosecutor's under Mr. Kuchma between July 2002 and October 2003, when Mr. Kuchma signed a resolution removing him from his post.

On December 9, 2004, a court determined that Mr. Piskun was illegally forced to resign by President Kuchma, and he was reinstated as procurator general during the Orange Revolution.

Mr. Melnychenko said he does not support Mr. Piskun's current role as leader of the investigation and accused him of interfering with Mr. Yushchenko's progress.

Mr. Piskun has invited Mr. Melnychenko to return to Ukraine from his exile in the United States in order to provide testimony and the original tape recordings he made. All investigations against him are closed, Mr. Piskun said.

When asked by reporters why it took so long for him to solve the Gongadze case, Mr. Piskun replied that he was fired before he could finish his investigation.

"If I were not fired, it's possible the matter would have been fully investigated in the fall of 2003," Mr. Piskun said. "It could have cost me my life."

As the investigation into Mr. Gongadze's murder deepens, violence continues to target those involved. On February 28, an attempt was made to kill a suspected witness to Mr. Gongadze's murder.

Yuri Nestorov was returning home with a police escort when an attacker threw a grenade at them. The attacker fled after a brief exchange of gunfire.

The grenade caused damage to the building, and it wasn't clear whether Mr. Nestorov and his guard had sustained injuries.

Ihor Honcharov, a former police officer and suspect in the murder, said in a letter made public in 2003 that Mr. Nestorov took part in the Gongadze murder.

Mr. Honcharov died in prison in August 2003 under mysterious circumstances, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

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