A Kyiv court on June 23 ordered the reopening of a criminal investigation against Mykola Melnychenko, the former bodyguard of ex-President Leonid Kuchma.
The aim of the renewed probe is to find out who was behind the bugging of the presidential office more than a decade ago.
The taping allegedly captured hundreds of hours of incriminating conversations in which Kuchma and his top circle of plotted numerous crimes.
Kuchma and others implicated have always denied the accusations and disputed the authenticity of the tapes.
Among those crimes allegedly caught on tape was the Sept 16, 2000 murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze, a crime for which Kuchma now faces charges of exceeding his powers.
Melnychenko disclosed the tapes made in Kuchma’s office between 1999 and 2000, including the conversations allegedly confirming Kuchma’s involvement in the Gongadze murder.
The tapes are considered evidence in the case.
To determine the truth in the Gongadze case, it is needed to find out who, when, under what circumstances and for what purposes was recording the president.
– Valentyna Telychenko, a lawyer of Myroslava Gongadze.
The June 23 court decision was pushed through after Kuchma’s lawyers argued that a state treason investigation against Melnychenko was closed illegally in 2005.
“A pre-trial investigation was closed without any grounds. The resolution by the Prosecutor General’s Office must be cancelled,” reads the court ruling.
Melnychenko denies the charges, saying his secret recordings of Kuchma were motivated by public interest. Melnychenko told journalists that the ruling was expected.
Yuriy Boychenko, spokesperson for General Prosecutor Viktor Pshkonka, had no comment, saying prosecutors “just read this online but did not get a copy of the court ruling.”
Valentyna Telychenko, a lawyer of Gongadze’s widow, Myroslava, welcomed the new probe.
“To determine the truth in the Gongadze case, it is needed to find out who, when, under what circumstances and for what purposes was recording the president,” Telychenko said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected]
