You're reading: Court rules dropping charges of Kuchma’s involvement in Gongadze murder legal

The Ukrainian Higher Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Case has upheld the legality of dropping charges against the country's second president, Leonid Kuchma, regarding his alleged involvement in the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze.

The court made the decision on Tuesday, having examined the cassation appeal filed by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office against the overturning of its ruling to open a criminal case against Kuchma, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent said.

The Court thus rejected the prosecutors’ cassation appeal against the decision by the Appellate Court, which upheld the ruling by Pechersky District Court in Kyiv that a decision to open the criminal case against Kuchma is illegal. 

The criminal case was opened against Kuchma on March 21, 2011. He was charged with exceeding his authority and official powers, which subsequently led to Gongadze’s murder.

On December 13, 2011, the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv ruled that the criminal case against Kuchma was opened illegally and quashed the relevant decision by the Prosecutor General’s Office. The tapes of Kuchma’s ex-bodyguard, Maj. Mykola Melnychenko, were not accepted by the court as evidence in the Gongadze murder case.

On January 20, 2012, the Appellate court in Kyiv upheld the legality of the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv.

The Prosecutor General’s Office filed a cassation against the said decision by the Appellate Court. In their complaint prosecutors asked to quash previous court rulings and send the case to the trial court, i.e. the Pechersky District Court, for re-examination by a new panel of judges.