You're reading: Lawyer for Gongadze’s widow says Pechersky District Court head intervening in work of panel of judges on Pukach case

Valentyna Telychenko, the lawyer for journalist Georgy Gongadze's widow, Myroslava Gongadze, has said that Head of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv Inna Otrash is illegally intervening in the work of a panel of judges considering the Pukach case.

“The panel of judges entered the courtroom, and everybody was about to begin work, but suddenly a court secretary told the court something and they all left the courtroom together. I followed them and saw them entering the office of the head of the court,” she told reporters after a court hearing in Kyiv on Thursday.

Telychenko noted that the panel of judges was in the office of the head of the Pechersky District Court for over an hour and after the judges appeared in the courtroom, technical means for the protection of audio information were not turned on.

“Earlier, the court insisted that the case be considered behind closed doors, as there are state secrets [being discussed]. But the situation suddenly changed and the protection of state secrets was not used,” she said.

She noted that she had put a respective question to the court, which, in turn, reported that former State Department Guard Major Mykola Melnychenko is not a witness who had access to state secrets.

The lawyer noted that Melnychenko reported in his testimony what he heard from conversations in the office of second Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.

“He reiterated that he heard with his own ears a conversation between [former Interior Minister Yuriy] Kravchenko and Kuchma, in which Kravchenko reports on how Podolsky was beaten up. He also said that he had heard a few conversations with the participation of Lytvyn, Kravchenko, Kuchma, and Derkach, which dealt with the need to influence Georgy Gongadze and make sure that he did not write critical articles, did not speak, did not intervene, etc,” she said.

Telychenko said that after Melnychenko stopped giving his testimony, she started asking questions, but he refused to answer any of her first questions, saying that “it’s a secret” and not mentioning what exactly.

She said that after that the court started clarifying whether Melnychenko had access to state secrets when he worked at the State Guard Department.

“Of course, then he had access to state secrets. But since Mykola Melnychenko arrived for the hearing with his lawyer, who has no access [to state secrets], the court was obliged to give him time to provide his lawyer with access to state secrets or replace the lawyer,” Telychenko said.

She said that Melnychenko’s questioning was interrupted because of this and the court hearing will continue on Monday, November 26, at 1400, where another witness will be questioned, because, according to Melnychenko he will hardly have time to clarify the situation with his lawyer.

“The main conclusion today is that the visit by the panel of judges to the office of the court’s head is irrefutable proof that the head of the court is influencing the panel and her actions are a crime. There is an urgent need to contact the concerned law enforcement authorities and make a statement about the crime,” Telychenko said.

Gongadze went missing in Kyiv on September 16, 2000. A decapitated corpse, which experts claimed could be that of Gongadze, was found in a forest outside Kyiv in November 2000. In May 2010, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko stated that fragments of a skull found in July 2009 in Kyiv region belonged to Gongadze.

However, the body has not been buried until now, as the journalist’s mother Lesia Gongadze refuses to recognize that it belongs to her son.

Pukach, who had long been on the wanted list, was detained in Zhytomyr region on July 21, 2009, and has been kept in custody since then.

In December 2010, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that the investigation into the criminal case was over. The investigation confirmed that Pukach killed the journalist by order of then Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko.

Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court has been considering the criminal case against Pukach since April 2011.

In November 2000, a transcript of several tapes pointing to the involvement of then Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and other officials in a number of high-profile crimes, including the Gongadze murder, was published in the parliament. Those tapes were allegedly recorded by Melnychenko. However, the court refused to include Melnychenko’s tapes as evidence in the case.