His funeral was arranged by his widow, Myroslava, the head of the Ukrainian service of Voice of America in Washington, D.C., and their two teenage daughters. Gongadze’s mother, Lesya, died on Nov. 30, 2013 at the age of 69.

Georgiy Gongadze founded Ukrainska Pravda. He was kidnapped and murdered on Sept. 16, 2000, after being followed by police officers for weeks. While former police Gen. Oleksiy Pukach and three other ex-police officers are serving prison sentences for the crime, the cover-up persists.

Evidence has always been strong that ex-President Leonid Kuchma, his then chief of staff Volodymyr Lytvyn and other top officials conspired to order the murder. Strong evidence, including audiotapes made by former Kuchma presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko, implicates Kuchma. Pukach accused Kuchma and Lytvyn as well.

Kuchma and Lytvyn have always denied any involvement in Gongadze’s murder. Those denials ring hollow for anybody who lived during Kuchma’s 10-year dictatorship. Kuchma should have been put on trial for murder long ago. He’s convicted alright, but only in the court of public opinion.

We don’t believe much said by ex-Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin, who served as the hatchet man for the corrupt ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. But Kuzmin was probably telling the truth when he said that Kuchma’s son-in-law, billionaire Victor Pinchuk, paid $1 billion in bribes to keep Kuchma out of jail. Kuchma and Pinchuk have denied all allegations.

The fact that President Petro Poroshenko is not insisting on justice in Gongadze’s murder is more evidence that Ukraine remains a lawless kleptocracy, with Poroshenko serving more as mafia boss than as democratic president.